Standing stone, Carrickbeg, Co. Waterford

Co. Waterford |

Stone Monuments

Standing stone, Carrickbeg, Co. Waterford

A single stone rising from the edge of a river floodplain is an easy thing to walk past without registering its age, yet this conglomerate block at the foot of Carrickbeg Hill has been standing since prehistory, oriented almost precisely north-northeast to south-southwest, as if placed with deliberate purpose.

The stone sits where the slope of Carrickbeg Hill flattens out to meet the floodplain of the River Suir, which runs west to east through this part of County Waterford. It is a conglomerate, meaning it is composed of older rock fragments cemented together into a single mass, and its rectangular cross-section measures roughly 1.1 metres by 0.3 metres, with a height of 1.55 metres. The crest is rounded rather than pointed, and both the northern and southern ends show signs of damage. Standing stones of this kind are among the most enigmatic monuments in the Irish landscape; their precise function is rarely certain, with theories ranging from territorial markers to ritual or astronomical alignments. What is notable here is that a second standing stone lies approximately 200 metres to the southeast, raising the possibility that the two were once part of a broader arrangement across this low-lying ground beside the river.

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