Standing stone, Killacolla (Shanid By.), Co. Limerick

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Stone Monuments

Standing stone, Killacolla (Shanid By.), Co. Limerick

A standing stone that has been polished not by archaeologists but by livestock says something about how prehistory survives in the Irish countryside.

This example in Killacolla, in the barony of Shanid in County Limerick, sits on a low rise within pasture, its edges worn smooth where cattle have rubbed against it over generations. The animals have also churned up the ground around its base, which gives the whole scene an oddly domestic quality; something ancient, shaped and placed with deliberate intention, now functioning incidentally as a scratching post.

The stone itself is roughly triangular in both profile and cross-section, standing 1.3 metres high, though it broadens considerably toward the base, reaching 1.8 metres in width there before narrowing to 0.5 metres at the shoulder. It leans slightly to the south-west and its long axis runs east to west. Standing stones, which are among the most common prehistoric monument types in Ireland, were erected singly or in groups during the Bronze Age or earlier, and their precise purposes remain debated; they may have marked boundaries, burial sites, routeways, or served ritual functions that are now entirely opaque. What makes this particular stone more complex than it first appears is the presence of two further slabs set into the ground immediately to its north and south. These are lower and flatter, embedded rather than upright, and they bracket the main stone closely enough to suggest some kind of deliberate arrangement. Smaller stones are scattered around the vicinity as well. The record was compiled by Denis Power and uploaded in August 2011.

The site sits in ordinary farmland, so access would require the permission of the landowner. The low rise on which it stands is subtle enough that the stone might not be visible from a distance across the flat surrounding ground, meaning it rewards careful navigation rather than casual spotting from a lane. The most useful thing to look for on arrival is not just the upright itself but the two flanking slabs, which are easy to miss if the grass is long; they sit almost flush with the ground to either side.

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