Stone row, Ballygarret, Co. Kerry

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Stone Monuments

Stone row, Ballygarret, Co. Kerry

On a flat coastal strip between the Slieve Mish mountains and the waters of Tralee Bay, three prehistoric standing stones were once arranged in a deliberate line, orientated roughly east-north-east to west-south-west.

Stone rows, sometimes called stone alignments, are among the more enigmatic monuments of prehistoric Ireland and Britain; their precise purpose remains debated, though astronomical orientation and ceremonial use are the most commonly proposed explanations. This particular row is modest in number but not in scale, and its condition tells its own quiet story of time and gravity at work.

The westernmost stone, which would have been the tallest of the three at over three metres in length, is now prostrate, lying flat on the ground. Its nearest neighbour to the east, still standing at 2.76 metres, gives some sense of what the fallen stone must once have looked like upright. The easternmost stone has fared differently again, having split vertically into three separate portions; two fragments stand at 2.17 metres and 2 metres respectively, while the third reaches only 0.45 metres. The alignment was documented by J. Cuppage as part of the Corca Dhuibhne archaeological survey of the Dingle Peninsula, published in 1986, which catalogued the remarkable concentration of prehistoric and early medieval remains across this corner of County Kerry. What the row looked like when all three stones were intact and upright, arranged across a low-lying field with the mountains at their back and the bay beyond, can only be imagined now from the measurements that survive.

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