Standing stone, Ardkearagh, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Stone Monuments

Standing stone, Ardkearagh, Co. Kerry

On the lower north-eastern slopes of Trusk mountain in County Kerry, a single irregularly shaped stone rises from rocky pastureland with the quiet stubbornness of something that has simply always been there.

It stands 1.7 metres tall, widening slightly as it climbs, from 0.63 metres at the base to 0.85 metres at its flat, sloping top, and is oriented along a north-south axis. At its foot, two packing stones are still visible, the practical wedges used by whoever erected it to keep it upright, a small detail that makes the anonymous labour behind the monument feel suddenly real.

Standing stones of this kind appear throughout the Iveragh Peninsula, that long finger of land in south Kerry that carries the Ring of Kerry along its edge. They are prehistoric in origin, though pinning a precise date or purpose to any individual example is rarely straightforward. Some are thought to mark boundaries, drove roads, or burial sites; others may have held astronomical or ritual significance. What is consistent is the care implied by those packing stones, the fact that someone, at some point in the deep past, chose this particular spot on this particular hillside and decided the stone should stay.

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