Standing stone, Carrigeencullia, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Stone Monuments

Standing stone, Carrigeencullia, Co. Kerry

In a level Kerry pasture stands a rectangular slab of stone, just under two metres tall, its longer axis running east to west.

It is the kind of object that rewards a second look: not a ruin, not a foundation, not a fragment, but a single upright stone placed deliberately in the landscape, its orientation suggesting an awareness of solar movement that was common to prehistoric communities across Ireland and Britain.

The stone measures 0.81 metres wide and 0.45 metres deep, rising to a height of 1.85 metres. Those proportions make it a solid, purposeful presence rather than a slender needle. Standing stones of this type are generally associated with the Bronze Age, though precise dating of individual examples is rarely possible without excavation. What can be observed is the sightline: looking south-east from the stone, the twin rounded summits of the Paps of Dana rise on the horizon. Those two hills, whose silhouette gave rise to their name and to long-standing associations with the goddess Anu or Danu, appear repeatedly in the orientation of prehistoric monuments across the Iveragh and Duhallow regions, suggesting they served as a shared point of reference across a wide landscape over many centuries.

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