Ballinakill Rock
Whilst compiling new detail for a complete overhaul of our Blackstairs & Mount Leinster map, I came across the site again of the Ballinakill Rock. This is a large 3-4 metre high granite boulder lying in a ditch near the village of Garryhill in Co.Carlow. A lot of large granite field boulders would have been broken up by stone cutters to make building stone in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
But this one survived and more than likely since it’s said to have been hurled by a cailleach or witch from the Black Banks, slopes of Mount Leinster some few miles to the south east. She was aiming for Ballyloughan Castle but missed when she lost her footing and slid down the hillside on her backside. Thus gouging out two ditches known as the Cailín Slithers. Her handprint is said to be on top of the rock but covered now in ivy.
The Ballinakill Rock is marked on the current 2013 map but lies on private farmland.
#eastwestmapping #blackstairs #carlowtourism
