Megalithic structure, Kilfallinga, Co. Kerry

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Megalithic Tombs

Megalithic structure, Kilfallinga, Co. Kerry

In a field at Kilfallinga, not far from Castleisland in County Kerry, a large slab of blue sandstone sits propped above the ground on smaller stones, and nobody is entirely sure what it is.

That ambiguity is itself the point of interest. Megalithic structures in Ireland come in well-worn categories, portal tombs, wedge tombs, standing stones, and the rest, but this one has so far resisted a tidy label.

Field surveyors who recorded the site between 1985 and 1990 described a capstone measuring roughly 3.05 metres in length and up to 2.40 metres wide at its south-west end, tapering to around 1.30 metres at the north-east. The stone is irregular in shape, its upper surface tilting downward toward the north. Underneath, it is held at the south-west by two smaller pad stones, raising that end to about 1.35 metres from the ground, while the north-east end sits lower, at around 80 centimetres. Cut or worn into the south-west face of the stone is a small circular depression, roughly 4 centimetres across and 3 centimetres deep. Such cup-marks, as similar features are generally known, appear on prehistoric stones across Ireland and Britain, though their purpose remains a matter of debate among archaeologists. Whether this one is decorative, ritual, or simply the result of natural erosion is another question the site leaves open. The surveyors concluded plainly that the precise nature of the structure was unknown and that further research would be needed before any firmer classification could be made. As far as the record shows, that research is still pending.

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