Two Rock

Fairy Castle, as the summit is known, is marked by a stone cairn and an Ordnance Survey trig pillar.Fourwinds, p. 155. These both sit on top of a circular structure of granite and quartz blocks {{convert|25|m|ft|abbr=off}} across and {{convert|2|m|ft|abbr=off}} high and covered by turf and vegetation.Corlett, p. 109. This is the remains of a passage tomb, the easternmost of a series of such tombs that stretches across the Dublin and West Wicklow Mountains. The entrance to the tomb – once described by locals as a "cave" – can no longer be seen due to the collapse of the edges of the cairn. There is no evidence that the tomb has ever been opened but archaeologists believe that the interior contains a small burial chamber.Healy, p. 95.Corlett, p. 100.

In an area of forest to the southeast of the summit, near Ballyedmonduff, at grid reference O 185 213, there is a Bronze Age wedge tomb, known as the "Giant's Grave".Fourwinds, p. 81. It is considered one of the finest examples of a wedge tomb in Ireland:Corlett, p. 102. the antiquarian John O'Donovan said of it, "I doubt I have met so perfect a pagan grave in any other counties hitherto examined".Herity, p. 3. Its appearance has changed since the time of its first discovery: sketches made in the 1830s by the Ordnance Survey show a grass-covered tumulus.Fourwinds, p. 16. A drawing by George Du Noyer indicates that the roof was partially intact at that time.Herity, p. 19. In addition, the pine forest that now surrounds the site obscures the views of the Great Sugar Loaf mountain and the twin tors of Two Rock that would have been possible from this location in the past.Fourwinds, p. 21. The tomb was first opened in 1832 by Alderman Blacker of St Andrew Street, Dublin but no record of this excavation survives.Healy, p. 114. However, when John O'Donovan visited on behalf of the Ordnance Survey, the locals told him that ashes had been found when the grave was opened. After the tomb was opened, many of the larger stones were removed by local stonecutters. The site was excavated again in 1945 by Seán P. Ó Riordáin and Rúaidhri de Valera who found sherds of decorated Beaker pottery, a polished hammer, a possible polishing stone and a flint scraper.Corlett, p. 26. A small amount of cremated human bone was also found.Corlett, p. 103. Following the excavation the monument was rebuilt in the form it appears in today. The tomb consists of a burial gallery over {{convert|6|m|ft|abbr=off}} long divided into three chambers surrounded by a horseshoe-shaped arrangement of stones with a straight façade at the western end. At the southern end is a long stone with seven cupmarks on one surface. This form of rock art is usually associated with earlier Neolithic culture and is generally found on natural rock outcrops. The stone may have come from a natural boulder brought to the site during construction.

There was once another megalithic tomb – known as The Greyhound's BedHerity, p. 25 – on the southern slopes of Two Rock near the R116 road between the villages of Glencullen and Brockey.Healy, p. 98. This was described in 1836 by the antiquarian Eugene O'Curry as a long stone {{convert|10|ft|m|abbr=off}} long by {{convert|7|ft|m|abbr=off}} wide.Pearson, p. 312. A sketch was made by the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland in 1855 before the monument was destroyed.

There is also a triangular-shaped standing stone, {{convert|1|m|ft|abbr=off}} high approximately {{convert|400|m|ft|abbr=off}}, north-northeast of Fairy Castle on the slope leading to Three Rock.Fourwinds, p. 156.

Two Rock can be reached via the Coillte-owned forest recreation areas of Ticknock,{{cite web |url=http://www.coillteoutdoors.ie/?id=53&rec_site=52 |title=Ticknock |access-date=2010-07-28 |work=Coillte Outdoors }} Kilmashogue{{cite web |url=http://www.coillteoutdoors.ie/index.php?id=54&trail=50&no_cache=1 |title=Wicklow Way (Kilmashogue) |access-date=2010-07-28 |work=Coillte Outdoors }} and Tibradden,{{cite web |url=http://www.coillteoutdoors.ie/index.php?id=54&trail=66&no_cache=1 |title=Pine Forest Trail |access-date=2010-07-28 |work=Coillte Outdoors }} which are managed by the Dublin Mountains Partnership. The mountain is traversed by the Dublin Mountains Way hiking trail that runs between Shankill and Tallaght while the Wicklow Way hiking trail runs to the west of the summit.

{{Gallery

| title = Two Rock Mountain

|File:Two Rock Mountain Tors.jpg|alt1=|The two tors that give Two Rock its name

|File:Fairy Castle on Two Rock Mountain.jpg|alt2=|Fairy Castle: the mound on which the cairn and trig pillar sit is a passage grave

|File:Ballyedmonduff Wedge Tomb.jpg|alt3=|Ballyedmonduff wedge tomb

|File:Rock Art Ballyedmonduff Wedge Tomb.jpg|alt4=|Rock art at Ballyedmonduff wedge tomb

|File:Standing Stone on Two Rock Mountain.jpg|alt5=|Standing stone on the north-northeast slopes

}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Corlett |first=Christiaan |title=Antiquities of Old Rathdown. The archaeology of south County Dublin and north County Wicklow |year=1999 |publisher=Wordwell |location=Bray, County Wicklow |isbn=1-869857-29-1 }}
• {{cite book |last=Fourwinds |first=Tom |title=Monu-mental About: Prehistoric Dublin |year=2006 |publisher=Nonsuch Publishing Limited |location=Dublin |isbn=978-1-84588-560-1 }}
• {{cite book |last=Healy |first=Patrick |title=Rathfarnham Roads |date=April 2005 |publisher=South Dublin Libraries |location=Dublin |isbn=0-9547660-3-2 |url=http://www.askaboutireland.ie/aai-files/assets/libraries/south-dublin-county-library/reading-room/Digital%20Books/Rathfarnham%20Roads.pdf |format=pdf |access-date=2010-08-07 }}
• {{cite book |editor1-first=Michael |editor1-last=Herity |title=Ordnance Survey Letters Dublin |year=2001 |publisher=Four Masters Press |location=Dublin |isbn=1-903538-05-X }}
• {{cite book |last=Joyce |first=Weston St. John |title=The Neighbourhood of Dublin |year=1994 |orig-year=first published 1912 |publisher=Hughes and Hughes |location=Dublin |isbn=0-7089-9999-9 }}
• {{cite map |publisher=Ordnance Survey Ireland |title=Discovery Series No. 50: Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Wicklow |edition=6th |year=2010 |scale=1:50,000 |series=Discovery Series |isbn=978-1-907122-17-0 }}
• {{cite book |last=Pearson |first=Peter |title=Between the Mountains and the Sea. Dun Laoghaire–Rathdown County |year=1998 |publisher=O'Brien Press |location=Dublin |isbn=0-86278-582-0 }}

• [https://www.dublinmountains.ie/index.php?id=135 Two Rock Mountain] at [https://www.dublinmountains.ie Dublin Mountains Partnership]
• [http://mountainviews.ie/mv/index.php?mtnindex=382 Two Rock Mountain] at [http://mountainviews.ie Mountain Views]
• [https://www.megalithomania.com/show/site/255/fairy_castle_passage_tomb.htm Fairy Castle] at [https://www.megalithomania.com/ Megalithomania]
• [https://www.megalithomania.com/show/site/29/ballyedmonduff_wedge_tomb.htm Ballyedmonduff wedge tomb] at [https://www.megalithomania.com/ Megalithomania]
• [http://blather.net/blather/2004/03/ballyedmonduff_wedgetomb_in_th.html Ballyedmonduff wedge tomb] at [https://web.archive.org/web/20100806120000/http://www.blather.net/index.htm blather.net]

{{Mountains and hills of Leinster}}

Category:Marilyns of Ireland

Category:Archaeological sites in County Dublin

Category:Mountains and hills of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown