Standing stone - pair, Clogagh, Co. Cork

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Stone Monuments

Standing stone – pair, Clogagh, Co. Cork

On a low ridge in rolling pasture in Clogagh, County Cork, two ancient standing stones sit close together, separated by less than four metres.

What makes the pair quietly compelling is that they are no longer a matched set in the way their builders intended. One still stands; the other has fallen and now lies flat, its dimensions measurable but its purpose as a vertical monument undone.

Paired standing stones are a feature of the prehistoric landscape throughout West Cork, and this example was documented by the archaeologist Seán Ó Nualláin in 1988. As recently as 1963, both stones were upright, so the collapse of the western stone is a relatively modern loss, at least in archaeological terms. That western stone, now prostrate, measures 2.2 metres in length, 0.85 metres wide, and 0.8 metres thick; the eastern end was clearly the original base, though no socket, the hollow cut into the ground to hold a standing stone in place, remains visible. The eastern stone, still standing at 1.55 metres high, is smaller overall, measuring 0.9 metres by 0.7 metres at its base. The two stones stand 3.85 metres apart, and the long axis of the monument as a whole appears to have run roughly east-northeast to west-southwest, an alignment that may or may not have carried astronomical significance for whoever raised them, though no firm conclusion can be drawn from the measurements alone.

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