Standing stone, Cashelboy, Co. Sligo

Co. Sligo |

Stone Monuments

Standing stone, Cashelboy, Co. Sligo

In the townland of Cashelboy in County Sligo, a standing stone occupies a patch of ground it has held for perhaps four or five thousand years.

Standing stones are among the most quietly persistent features of the Irish landscape, single upright slabs of local rock set into the earth during the Bronze Age or earlier, their original purposes debated ever since. They have been interpreted as territorial markers, burial indicators, astronomical alignment points, and meeting places, and the honest answer is that no single explanation covers them all.

Cashelboy itself is a townland name with a telling etymology: the Irish "caiseal buidhe" suggests a yellow or pale-coloured stone fort, the word caiseal referring to a dry-stone enclosure of the kind common in the west of Ireland during the early medieval period. Whether any such structure survives in the vicinity, or whether the standing stone predates that settlement by millennia, is not currently documented in available public records. What is certain is that the stone exists as a registered monument, recognised by the state as a feature of archaeological significance within a landscape that has seen continuous human activity across a very long span of time.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Standing stone, Cashelboy, Co. Sligo. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement