On a Clear Day
On a clear day you can see six counties from the top of Donegore Motte – or so the sign says! The view certainly is special.
Donegore Motte is situated on Donegore Hill. In earlier years Neolithic pottery, stone axes, flint arrowheads and buried human bones have been found in the course of excavations, and these strongly suggest that the Motte was a Passage Grave, a burial mound built around 3000BC.
The picturesque St. John’s Church, a Grade A listed Building, is close by the motte. The churchyard has many interesting old headstones, including that of Sir Samuel Ferguson, Irish poet and scholar, who died in 1886.
In the south-west corner of the churchyard is the corpse house,also a listed building. The 1832 Anatomy Act allowed the bodies of paupers in workhouses and hospitals to be confiscated and used for dissection by students in anatomy classes. Prior to this the shortage of bodies led to the rise of body-snatching, where bodies were stolen from graves and sold to medical schools. A corpse house was a secure building in which the coffin could be locked for a few weeks until the body began to decompose, after which burial could take place safe in the knowledge that the body would be useless for anatomical purposes. The corpse house at Donegore still stands today with its original iron gate and stone roof.
There is a large, free car park at N54 43.503 W006 07.767. Walk from this car park to the start of the nature trail at N54 43.450 W006 07.740, and from this there is free access to the top of the motte by way of steps. It is quite a steep climb, but also a short one.
The cache site is only available Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00am till 4:00pm, and Sunday 1:00pm till 6:00pm.
Grateful thanks to the landowner for willing permission to place the cache.