Look more closely, though, and the ground around its base gives something away: the tops of packing-stones are still visible, the ancient wedging material used to keep the upright stable when it was first erected, presumably thousands of years ago. That kind of quiet, accidental survival is what makes a site like this worth pausing over.

The stone itself is modest by the standards of prehistoric monuments: 1.5 metres long and around 28 centimetres wide, standing to a height of 1.3 metres, with an irregular cross-section rather than a neatly dressed profile. It is orientated roughly SSW to NNE, an alignment that may or may not have been intentional, though deliberate orientation is common enough among Irish standing stones to make the question worth asking. Standing stones, which date broadly to the Bronze Age in Ireland, were erected singly or in small groupings for purposes that remain genuinely uncertain; ritual, territorial marking, and commemoration have all been proposed. What gives this particular example an added layer of interest is its immediate surroundings. Just one metre to the north-east lies the remains of a hut site, a low circular or oval earthwork marking where a structure once stood. The proximity is unlikely to be accidental, though whether the two features are contemporary or separated by centuries is not something the ground surface alone can settle.