Standing stone, Gortnada, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Stone Monuments

Standing stone, Gortnada, Co. Tipperary

A single limestone block, barely a metre tall, stands just below the crest of a hill in the meadows of Gortnada in North Tipperary.

It is not dramatic in scale, but its placement and orientation suggest it was put there with deliberate purpose. The stone is aligned on a NE-SW axis, a recurring feature among Irish prehistoric standing stones, and its top face slopes upward toward the southwest, a detail that may have carried astronomical or ceremonial meaning for whoever raised it, though no written record survives to say so.

The stone is roughly rectangular in plan, measuring one metre by 0.44 metres at its widest, and reaches 0.83 metres at its apex. It is limestone, the dominant rock type across much of Tipperary's landscape, and it shows the slow weathering that comes with age, spalling noticeably along its southeast face. Spalling, the gradual flaking or splitting of stone surface layers, is common in limestone exposed to repeated cycles of frost and moisture over centuries. There is a low grassy hummock built up around the base, though no packing-stones are visible, which means either the original supports have been lost or the stone was set directly into the earth. Standing stones of this kind are generally attributed to the Bronze Age, though in the absence of excavation it is difficult to be precise about any individual example.

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