Standing stone, Ballynabanoge, Co. Waterford

Co. Waterford |

Stone Monuments

Standing stone, Ballynabanoge, Co. Waterford

On a north-east-facing slope in Ballynabanoge, tucked into a natural fold near the crest of the hill, a single standing stone rises less than a metre from the ground. It is easy to overlook, and that is partly what makes it worth attention. Standing stones of this kind are among the most enduring and least explained features of the Irish landscape, erected during prehistory, most likely the Bronze Age, as markers, boundary indicators, or focal points for ritual activity whose precise nature remains a matter of speculation.

The stone itself is a mica-bearing rock, possibly granite, with a notably rectangular cross-section measuring roughly 0.7 metres by 0.45 metres and standing about 0.95 metres above ground. Its long axis is oriented north-east to south-west, a detail that may or may not be deliberate; alignments of this kind are sometimes interpreted as responses to solar or lunar events, though without additional evidence it is difficult to say more than that the orientation matches the slope it inhabits. Mica-bearing stones have a faint glittering quality in certain light, caused by the mineral's reflective crystal structure, which gives this otherwise modest monument an occasional unexpected quality when the angle of the sun is right.

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