Standing stone, Clonaspoe, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Stone Monuments

Standing stone, Clonaspoe, Co. Tipperary

A limestone slab standing nearly two metres tall in open grassland near Clonaspoe is unremarkable at a glance, but the detail that sets it apart is relational rather than individual.

This stone is one of three, and all three can see one another. The nearest companion stands 370 metres to the north-east; the third is 520 metres to the north. Whatever purpose the arrangement once served, the decision to place each stone within the sightline of the others suggests a deliberate spatial logic, one that has endured long enough to be recorded on the first Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1840.

The stone itself is rectangular in plan, oriented roughly east-north-east to west-south-west, and the top surface slopes very slightly upward in the east-north-east direction, a feature that may or may not be intentional but is difficult to dismiss entirely once noticed. Around its base, centuries of cattle grazing have worn a shallow depression into the ground, a minor form of erosion that speaks to the long, unheroic stretch of time between the stone's erection and the present. Roughly 100 metres to the south-south-east lies a ringfort, a type of enclosed farmstead common across early medieval Ireland, typically consisting of a circular earthen bank surrounding a domestic settlement. Whether the proximity of the fort to the standing stone reflects any meaningful connection or simply the tendency of people across different eras to favour the same elevated, well-drained ground is impossible to say. What is clear is that this part of Tipperary has been considered a good place to be for a very long time, and the views across the surrounding landscape from this high ground give some indication of why.

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Pete F
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