Standing stone, Tíorabháin, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Stone Monuments

Standing stone, Tíorabháin, Co. Kerry

On the northern slopes of Croaghmarhin, on the Dingle Peninsula, the Ordnance Survey maps mark a "Gallaun", the Irish term for a standing stone, a single upright monolith of the kind erected across Ireland from the Bronze Age onwards.

The map marking implies presence, permanence even. In reality, nothing is there. No stone, no stump, no socket in the ground to suggest where one once stood. What the OS recorded has since vanished entirely into the rough, marshy pastureland it once occupied.

The site overlooks the low-lying corridor between Ferriter's Cove and Smerwick Harbour, a stretch of the far west Kerry coast with its own dense archaeological history. The standing stone was documented by J. Cuppage in the 1986 Corca Dhuibhne archaeological survey of the Dingle Peninsula, a study that catalogued the remarkable concentration of prehistoric and early medieval monuments in this area. At the time of that survey the gallaun's location could at least be described: marshy ground, a northern slope, a view out towards the water. By the time more recent research revisited the record, no visible trace remained. Whether the stone fell, was removed, or simply sank into the bog is not recorded.

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