Standing stone, Carrigeencullia, Co. Kerry

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Stone Monuments

Standing stone, Carrigeencullia, Co. Kerry

A standing stone that sits on its own in rough Kerry pasture might not seem like much at first glance, but the one at Carrigeencullia earns attention by what it faces rather than what it is.

From its elevated position, the stone looks south-east directly towards The Paps of Dana, the twin-peaked mountain that takes its name from the goddess Danu of Irish mythology, whose breasts the summits are said to resemble. Whether that alignment was deliberate is something prehistory rarely answers cleanly, but it is difficult to stand beside a monument this old and dismiss the view as coincidence.

The stone itself is modest in scale but unusual in shape. Most standing stones tend toward the flat and blade-like, set on their narrow edge to maximise height. This one is roughly square in plan, measuring about half a metre on each side, and rises to 1.77 metres. It is orientated along a north-north-west to south-south-east axis, which places The Paps directly along its sight line. Standing stones are among the more enigmatic monuments of prehistoric Ireland, raised across the landscape during the Bronze Age and possibly earlier, for purposes that may have included territorial marking, commemoration, or astronomical and ritual orientation. Beyond that, the record is largely silent, and Carrigeencullia is no exception.

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