Megalithic structure, Cinn Aird Thiar, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Megalithic Tombs
On sloping pasture along the western edge of the Iveragh Peninsula, a low arrangement of ancient stones sits quietly in the corner of a field, its purpose and age unannounced by any signpost.
What makes it unusual is not its scale but its form: a roughly rectangular outline of upright and fallen slabs, open at one end, as though someone began building something deliberate and then simply stopped, or as though time and gravity quietly removed whatever once completed the picture.
The monument consists of eight orthostats, meaning stones set upright in the ground, along with three prostrate slabs lying flat. Together they define a level rectangular area measuring approximately 5.5 metres on its longer axis and 1.7 metres across, open at the south-west. The south-east side is the best preserved, with five of the upright slabs still standing, ranging from 0.4 to 1.2 metres in height, accompanied by one fallen slab. The north-east side retains only a single block-like stone at its south-east corner, while the north-west side is marked by two uprights at one end and two overlapping prostrate slabs at the other. The structure overlooks Ballinskelligs Bay to the east, and lies about 200 metres from Reglaish church, a medieval site that indicates this particular stretch of land has drawn human attention across more than one era. The full description of the monument was compiled by A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan in their 1996 archaeological survey of the Iveragh Peninsula, published by Cork University Press, though what the structure originally was remains an open question. Orthostatic monuments of this kind, broadly megalithic in character, can represent anything from burial settings to boundary markers, and without excavation this one keeps its function to itself.