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CULLEN

CO. TIPPERARY · IE

Cullen
Cuileann, Co. Tipperary

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 06 / 06

Cuileann · Co. Tipperary

A bog that swallowed gold for three thousand years. Almost none of it survived.

Cullen sits 9 kilometres north-east of Tipperary town, on a junction of back roads in farming country. The Galtee Mountains are visible to the south on a clear day. The village has a church, a pub, a cemetery, and a bog immediately to the south-west that was once the single most productive source of prehistoric gold in Ireland.

The bog is the story. From at least 1731 - when the earliest recorded find, a two-gallon brass vessel with four legs, was pulled out - labourers cutting turf kept digging up gold objects. A Limerick jeweller bought a gold crown from a Cullen shopkeeper in 1744. In subsequent years: bars of pure gold, gorgets, a golden cone. More than 200 objects in total, deposited in the bog across centuries, probably as votive offerings. The site has since been described as one of the most important prehistoric finds in Ireland. It is also one of the most catastrophic losses: almost everything discovered went straight to the nearest goldsmith and was melted into currency. One piece - a gold dress-fastener - is known to have survived. It is in Birmingham. Cullen never saw any of it again.

The other thing to know about is Longstone Rath, a kilometre and a half down the road toward Emly. A limestone standing stone 2.3 metres tall on a mound inside a double-ditched ringfort - excavated in the 1970s, a National Monument now, and not on anyone's tourist trail. You can drive past it. Most people do.

Population

~150

Founded

Civil parish; formerly a market-town

Coords

52.5047° N, 8.2712° W

01 / 06

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The golden bog

Bronze Age gold - found, melted, gone.

From 1731 onwards, workmen cutting turf kept pulling gold objects out of the Bog of Cullen: gorgets, bars of pure gold, a golden cone described by one contemporary as 'the breast of a wooden idol.' Almost all of it was sold to goldsmiths and smelted. One dress-fastener survived. It is now in Birmingham.

Stories & lore → 02 Longstone Rath

A limestone slab on a mound that has been there since the Iron Age.

1.6 km west-southwest of the village. A National Monument: a bivallate ringfort with a 2.3-metre longstone at its centre. Archaeologists dug here in 1973-76 and came up with 4,000 potsherds, 400 flint scrapers, cremated bones and grooved ware pottery. The mound dates to c. AD 1; the enclosing rath was added around AD 600.

Stories & lore → 03 The parish

Cullen and Lattin - two small places sharing one church.

The Catholic parish pairs Cullen with Lattin, three kilometres north. The Diocese of Cashel and Emly has had them together since before anyone was writing things down. The village itself runs to a pub, a church and a cemetery.

Stories & lore →

02 / 06

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

Quinlan's Bar

Local, no frills, long in the tooth

Traditional village pub

Trading since around 1880. The whole village is within walking distance and most of the village has been in at some point. No food, no music schedule, no Instagram presence. A pint and a conversation. That is what it is.

03 / 06

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

Bronze Age votive gold - found in the 18th century, mostly destroyed

The Golden Bog

The Golden Bog of Cullen lies 650 metres south-west of the village. From 1731 onwards, turf-cutters working the bog kept turning up gold. The earliest recorded find was a brass vessel. In 1744 a gold crown came up. Then bars of gold, gorgets, a golden cone described as 'the breast of a wooden idol,' and eventually more than 200 objects spanning what appears to be centuries of deposition - probably ritual offerings placed in the water or wet ground during the Bronze Age. The bog has been described as one of the most important and prolific prehistoric sites in Ireland. It is also one of the most thoroughly plundered: before modern heritage law existed, almost every object was sold immediately to goldsmiths for its bullion value and melted down. One gold dress-fastener is known to have survived and is held at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. The bog itself yielded nothing that can be seen in Tipperary today.

A National Monument the signposts do not mention

Longstone Rath

A kilometre and a half west-southwest of Cullen, on a rise overlooking the Barna-Emly road, stands a limestone slab 2.3 metres high. It sits in the centre of a bivallate ringfort - two concentric ditches, an earthen mound - that archaeologists excavated between 1973 and 1976. They found 4,000 potsherds, six complete vessels, more than 400 flint scrapers, cremated bones, and grooved ware pottery. The mound is thought to date to around AD 1, mid-Iron Age; the rath was constructed around it some six centuries later. It is a National Monument. It is not particularly signposted. Bring a map or use the townlands.ie coordinates for Longstone townland.

A name, two explanations

Cuileann and the holly

The village name in Irish is Cuileann, the word for holly. One tradition holds that the place was simply named for the holly trees. Another has it that Fionn Mac Cumhail killed a warrior named Cuileann, son of Morna, somewhere in this parish - and the name stuck. The bog and the ringfort suggest people were doing significant things here long before either tradition was written down.

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The countryside around Cullen is quietly good in spring - green, quiet, no traffic. The bog and the rath are accessible any dry day.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

No peak-season pressure here. Come any time. The Galtees are hikeable from Bansha, fifteen minutes south, if you want a big day out.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Good light, manageable weather, the bog and rath entirely to yourself.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Nothing closes here that was not already quiet. The roads in this part of Tipperary can ice. That is the only real consideration.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Coming to see the gold

It is not here. It was never preserved here. The bog is a flat agricultural field. The story is the point, not the exhibit.

Expecting Longstone Rath to be signposted like a heritage site

It is not. It is in a field, accessible but unmarked from the road. Check the National Monuments map or townlands.ie before you go.

Getting there.

By car

Cullen is 9 km north-east of Tipperary town on the R664. From Tipperary town, take the Emly road north-east. The village is a junction at Longstone townland. From Cashel, head south-west on back roads through Lattin - about 20 km, 25 minutes.

By bus

No regular bus service to Cullen itself. Tipperary town is the nearest hub with Bus Éireann services. Local Link Tipperary may serve the area - check locallinktipperary.ie for current timetables.

By train

Limerick Junction is the nearest mainline station, 12 km north-west of Cullen. A car or taxi is needed from there.