Standing stone, Killeenagh, Co. Kerry

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Stone Monuments

Standing stone, Killeenagh, Co. Kerry

On the southern slopes of Mullaghmore, in rough wet pastureland above Castlemaine Harbour, a single prehistoric standing stone rises nearly two metres from the ground.

What makes it quietly arresting is its shape: the stone broadens into a pronounced shoulder about half a metre above the base, then tapers steadily upward to a point, giving it a silhouette that reads as almost deliberate, almost figural. It is aligned east to west at its base, measuring 2.35 metres across at the widest point and 0.65 metres deep, and it stands alone, with no immediately obvious ceremonial companion.

Standing stones of this kind are scattered across the Dingle Peninsula and the broader Munster landscape, erected at various points during prehistory, though the precise purpose of any individual example is rarely recoverable. They have been interpreted variously as territorial markers, astronomical sight-lines, or memorials, and some are associated with burial deposits discovered only through excavation. This particular stone was recorded as part of the Corca Dhuibhne archaeological survey published by J. Cuppage in 1986, a systematic effort to document the extraordinary density of ancient monuments across the peninsula. Around the stone, particularly to the south and south-west, are the fragmentary remains of old field walls, some of which appear on historical Ordnance Survey mapping and some of which do not, suggesting a landscape that has been slowly contracting from agricultural use over a long period, leaving the stone as one of the more durable presences in an otherwise altered setting.

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