Standing stone, Bunnafinglas, Co. Mayo

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Stone Monuments

Standing stone, Bunnafinglas, Co. Mayo

A standing stone that changes shape depending on where you stand is not a common thing, yet that is precisely what this modest block of stone in Bunnafinglas, County Mayo, does.

From the west or east it reads as a roughly rectangular slab with a rounded top, unremarkable enough in the landscape of the River Moy. Step around to the north, however, and the same stone presents a distinctly triangular profile, almost as though it were a different object entirely. Whether this visual trick was intentional when the stone was first raised is impossible to say, but it is the kind of detail that suggests whoever placed it here was paying close attention to how things look from different directions.

The stone sits on level elevated ground, with the River Moy running about 150 metres to the west and a ridge rising some 500 metres to the south-east. It is not especially large, measuring roughly 75 centimetres along its north-north-west to south-south-east axis, 64 centimetres across, and standing 1.35 metres high, with a rectangular cross-section at its base. It leans sharply to the south, which may be the result of centuries of soil movement or simply the slow surrender to gravity that most standing stones eventually make. Standing stones of this kind are prehistoric in origin, erected as markers for boundaries, routeways, or burial sites, and the proximity here to a burial ground located roughly 40 metres to the east suggests this stone may have served some funerary or commemorative purpose, though the exact relationship between the two remains unrecorded.

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Pete F
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