In the townland of Dromasmole in mid Cork, a standing stone that once formed part of a deliberate prehistoric alignment has been removed without trace, leaving no visible mark on the ground where it stood. What makes the absence particularly striking is the scale of what was once there: not a solitary stone but a coordinated arrangement stretching across the landscape.

Writing in 1939, the archaeologist P. J. Hartnett recorded four standing stones in this townland. Three of them formed what he described as an extended line running to the north-east for roughly 320 yards, a considerable distance suggesting an intentional and carefully laid-out monument. The stone in question was the central one of that trio, standing at 45 inches in height. Stone alignments of this kind are a recurring feature of the Cork and Kerry landscape, generally attributed to the Bronze Age, and their precise purpose remains debated; theories range from astronomical sightlines to territorial markers or processional routes. The Dromasmole example was, by Hartnett's account, one of four stones in the townland, implying a wider concentration of prehistoric activity in the area. At some point after 1939, this central stone was taken away, and today the field holds nothing to indicate it was ever there.