On an Inscribed Cromleac near Rathkenny, Co. Meath (vol. 9)

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1. Blasting of an ancient inscribed slab near Rathkenny

   Rathkenny · townland · Meath · 1834

   A man named Christy Downey, in his zeal for agricultural improvement, blasted a ancient slab similar to the surviving Rathkenny cromleac, located in an adjoining field 275 yards south-east. The stone was raised entire about six feet into the air by the blast and then broke into pieces, its debris subsequently used in fences and drains.

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   If we adopt the meaning of the term cromleac, which probably has come to us through the "Welsh, to be a leaning stone, or inclined stone, I am disposed to think that this monument near Rathkenny is perfect as it now stands ; that it never consisted of more than the two stones ; and that this may be a type of monument not hitherto noticed or described. I am the more impressed with this belief, because up to about thirty years ago another slab, popularly remembered as very similar, nearly, but not quite, as large as that just described, and facing in the same direction, existed in an adjoining field, at a point 275 yards south-east from the present one. "What mystic characters it may, or may not, have contained inscribed upon it no one now can tell. The man — Christy Downey — still lives, who, in his zeal for agricultural improvement, subjected this stone to the operation of blasting ; and its debris were afterwards worked up into fences and drains. He states that in the act of blasting " this stone was raised entire into the air for about six feet above the surface of the ground, and it then broke into pieces."

   There was also a third " big stone," of still smaller dimensions, which he describes as lying quite flat, and about two perches to the east of the one just mentioned as destroyed. From what he saw in the destruction of the first stone he would not undertake to break or to blast this one, though less in size than the other. He therefore dug a deep pit on one side of it; and when in the act of prizing the stone into the pit, he says that " such a whirlwind came about my legs as astonished me ; and I saw the effects of the wind on the surface for six or eight perchos all round." Under the centre of the stone, he states, " there was a cavity of about the size of a good pot, with black mould

   Internet Archive jstor-20488944, Chapter 1

   As the companion tells it

   Close to Rathkenny, in 1834, a man named Christy Downey blasted an ancient inscribed slab that had stood in an adjoining field, 275 yards south-east of the surviving cromleac. The stone was similar to that surviving monument, nearly but not quite as large, and facing the same direction. Downey acted, he said, in his zeal for agricultural improvement. When he blasted the stone, it was, in his own words, "raised entire into the air for about six feet above the surface of the ground, and it then broke into pieces." The debris was afterwards worked into fences and drains. What inscriptions it may or may not have carried, no one can now tell. There was also a third big stone, smaller still, lying quite flat, about two perches to the east of the one destroyed. After what he had seen in the blasting of the first stone, Downey would not undertake to break or blast this one. Instead he dug a deep pit on one side of it. As he prized the stone toward the pit, he said, "such a whirlwind came about my legs as astonished me; and I saw the effects of the wind on the surface for six or eight perches all round." Under the centre of the stone, he reported, there was a cavity about the size of a good pot, filled with black mould.