Standing stone - pair, Lissahane, Co. Waterford
Co. Waterford |
Stone Monuments
In a field near Lissahane in County Waterford, two prehistoric standing stones occupy a barely perceptible rise in otherwise flat ground. One still stands, a local stone with a triangular cross-section reaching 3.8 metres in height and oriented north to south. The other, measuring over three metres in length, lies prone on the earth beside it, as though it simply gave up at some point in the intervening millennia. Whether it fell under its own weight, was toppled deliberately, or was never quite finished being raised is not recorded anywhere.
Standing stones are among the most enigmatic survivals of prehistoric Ireland. They were erected across a vast span of time, most commonly during the Bronze Age, and their purposes remain genuinely uncertain, ranging from territorial markers and astronomical indicators to burial monuments or meeting points. The pair at Lissahane sits in what was presumably a deliberately chosen position, the slight rise making both stones visible across the surrounding level ground even if neither would dominate the landscape dramatically. Archaeological testing carried out around 2004 in the adjacent townland of Grennan, roughly 90 to 130 metres to the west, found no associated material of archaeological significance, leaving the stones without the kind of contextual evidence that might help explain their original function or the circumstances of their erection.
