Tiscoffin
Tigh Scoithín | |
---|---|
Civil Parish | |
Coordinates: 52°39′15″N 7°07′50″W / 52.6542265°N 7.130461°W | |
Country | Ireland |
Province | Leinster |
County | County Kilkenny |
Time zone | UTC+0 |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-1 |
Tiscoffin (Irish: Tigh Scoithín, meaning 'house of Scoithín') is a civil parish, in County Kilkenny, Ireland.[1][2][3]
It lies in the old barony of Gowran, county of Kilkenny, and province of Leinster, roughly ten kilometres east of Kilkenny town. Tiscoffin is reputedly the site of a battle in 1362, where James Butler, 2nd Earl of Ormond slew around six hundred of the clan of the Mac Murroughs - (Art Mór Mac Murchadha Caomhánach).[4]
Tiscoffin parish is the location of Freestone hill: the site of an Iron Age ringfort and Bronze Age cairn. During archaeological excavations in 1948 and 1949 led by Dr. Gerhard Bersu, a number of important Roman artifacts were unearthed. These included: a decorated bracelet, a possible buckle stud, a strip of decorated bronze and three rings, a copper coin of Constantine the Great (c.337 to 340AD), iron needles, a blue glass bracelet, two shreds of later Roman pottery and a small, polished cone.[5]
On top of Freestone hill stands an ancient hawthorn tree long held in reverence by the local population.[citation needed]
Freynestown townland was the site of the old monastery of St. Scuithin from whom Tiscoffin-(Tigh Scuithin) drives its placename.
In A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, published in 1837, Tiscoffin is described as:
Tiscoffin civil parish includes the following townlands: