Anomalous stone group, Shronaboy, Co. Kerry

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Stone Monuments

Anomalous stone group, Shronaboy, Co. Kerry

On a south-west-facing slope above Lake Guitane in County Kerry, two upright stones stand roughly 1.35 metres apart, aligned broadly east to west.

Neither stone is tidy about it: the western one leans to the north-north-east and is propped by smaller stones packed against it, while the eastern one tilts to the north-west and is similarly supported. They have been classified simply as an "anomalous stone group", which is archaeology's polite way of saying that the site does not fit neatly into any recognised category. It is not quite a stone pair in the formal prehistoric sense, not a portal tomb, not an alignment. It sits in the landscape as a quiet question.

The western stone stands about 1.6 metres tall and is roughly rectangular in plan, oriented WNW to ESE. The eastern stone is slightly shorter at 1.25 metres but broader, measuring nearly two metres along its longest axis and oriented NE to SW. The two stones are thus not parallel to each other, which adds to the difficulty of interpreting them as a designed pair. Around six metres to the west lies what may be a cairn, a mound of stones that can indicate a prehistoric burial or ritual site, though its status remains uncertain. The surrounding ground is rough hill pasture scattered with boulders and loose stones, the kind of terrain where ancient structures can be easy to overlook or to confuse with natural geology. Lake Guitane lies visible to the west below the slope, a low reflective presence in the wider Killarney uplands.

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