Standing stone, Ballygastell, Co. Clare

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Stone Monuments

Standing stone, Ballygastell, Co. Clare

In a children's burial ground at Ballygastell in County Clare, a tall limestone slab rises just over two and a half metres from the ground, its surface worn smooth by generations of cattle using it as a rubbing post.

That detail alone gives pause: an ancient marker, possibly prehistoric in origin, reduced over time to something like agricultural furniture, yet still standing.

The stone is classified as a possible standing stone, a designation that reflects genuine uncertainty about whether it was erected in prehistory or introduced to the site at a later date. What is clear is its physical character: finely cut limestone, rectangular in section, with a flat top and precise dimensions of 2.48 metres in height, 0.23 metres wide, and 0.15 metres thick. It leans slightly to the north and occupies the south-western corner of a children's burial ground. These burial grounds, known in Irish as cilliní, were used from the medieval period into the twentieth century to inter unbaptised infants and others excluded from consecrated churchyards. They are found across Ireland, often at liminal locations such as field boundaries, old ringforts, or sites with earlier religious associations. The presence of a potentially prehistoric standing stone within one adds a further layer of ambiguity to a place already defined by its complicated relationship to official memory and practice.

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Pete F
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