Boulder-burial, Na Leadhba Liatha, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Burial Sites
On a level terrace on the lower slopes of Canuig mountain in south Kerry, a flat slab of stone sits raised on four low supports, quietly holding its position above the surrounding pasture.
This is a boulder-burial, a form of prehistoric monument found predominantly in south-west Ireland, in which a large capstone is propped above the ground on smaller stones, creating a low, table-like structure. The cover-stone here measures just under two metres in length and averages roughly forty centimetres thick, and on its smooth upper surface are seven solution pits, small circular hollows formed naturally by weathering or, in some interpretations, deliberately worked into the stone. Their purpose, like that of boulder-burials in general, remains only partially understood.
The site sits at the head of the Ballinskelligs river valley, with a view opening out over Ballinskelligs Bay to the south-west. Two of the four support stones on the upslope side have been partially swallowed by hillwash, the gradual accumulation of material carried downslope over centuries, which gives some sense of how long this structure has been sitting here absorbing the slow processes of the mountain. A pad-stone rests on one of the visible supports to the east-south-east, an additional small stone element sometimes found in these monuments. The longer axis of the capstone runs roughly north-north-east to south-south-west. From this terrace, a wedge tomb at Coom is visible to the east-south-east, a reminder that this corner of the Iveragh Peninsula was once a landscape actively shaped and marked by its prehistoric inhabitants. Wedge tombs are communal stone-built burial chambers, typically dating from the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age, and the proximity of the two monument types here, each occupying its own sightline across the valley, suggests a landscape that was once meaningfully organised around these places.