It is the kind of stone that looks as though it has been mid-fall for several thousand years.

Standing stones are among the most enigmatic survivals in the Irish landscape. They were erected throughout prehistory, most commonly during the Bronze Age, and their purposes remain genuinely unclear; theories range from territorial markers and astronomical alignments to memorials and ritual focal points. This particular example at Blackmoor is an irregular granite pillar, roughly 1.9 metres tall and 2.3 metres long, with a width of 0.76 metres and a maximum thickness of 0.85 metres. It sits in pasture on a gentle north-west-facing ridge slope, with its long axis running north to south, and it inclines sharply to the west. Whether that lean is original or the result of centuries of settling into the Wicklow soil is the kind of question that tends not to have a satisfying answer. Granite, the dominant rock of the Wicklow uplands, weathers slowly and stubbornly, which means the stone itself betrays little about how long it has been standing, or leaning, here.