Standing stone, Grange (Smallcounty By.), Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Stone Monuments
A large stone lying at a tilt on a west-facing hillside might easily be dismissed as a geological curiosity, but this particular orthostat, a single upright or semi-upright prehistoric stone, carries a name that hints at something more deliberate.
The hill it sits against is recorded on Ordnance Survey maps as Ardaghlooda, roughly 250 metres west of Lough Gur in County Limerick, and the stone itself was measured at three metres in height when O'Kelly and O'Kelly documented it in 1978, by which point it was already described as reclining. What makes its position notable is not the stone alone but everything around it: two prehistoric enclosures, a field system, a second standing stone about 70 metres to the south-west, and three stone circles roughly 225 metres further to the south-south-west. The stone does not stand in isolation; it sits within what amounts to an unusually dense concentration of prehistoric activity.
Running directly to the west of the stone is a route recorded as Cladh na Leac, an ancient trackway or road oriented north to south, which suggests the site was once on or beside a well-used corridor through the landscape. In 1919, a researcher named Lynch recorded a piece of local folklore that adds another layer. An elderly man proposed that the name Cromcon derived from the Irish Cromcheann, meaning "bowed head", and applied it to this particular stone at the foot of Ardaghlooda, or Paddock Hill. Lynch went further, suggesting that the stone may have marked the location of an aenach, the Irish term for a ceremonial assembly or fair, specifically the Aenach of Clochar, said to have been held at the rock above Lough Gur. If that reading is correct, the stone was not merely a marker but potentially the focal point of a gathering place for the community of Old Clochar.
Lough Gur is already well known among those interested in Irish prehistory, and the area around it is managed and interpreted for visitors. The Ardaghlooda stone is recorded as National Monument No. 247, and its position on a hillslope west of the lough means it can be approached as part of a broader circuit of the monuments in the vicinity. The stone circles to the south-south-west, particularly the large circle at Grange, tend to draw more attention, but the trackway and the density of features around this stone reward a slower look. The aerial record shows the orthostat clearly, which gives a useful point of reference before visiting ground that can be uneven and partially obscured depending on vegetation and season.