Standing stone, Kilteery, Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Stone Monuments
A single upright stone in a field in County Limerick is not, on the face of it, a remarkable thing.
What makes this one in Kilteery worth a second look is the quiet evidence of effort visible at ground level: the packing stones deliberately wedged around its base to hold it in position, some of which have since worked loose over what may be thousands of years. Somebody went to considerable trouble to keep this stone exactly where they wanted it.
The stone itself stands 1.2 metres high, modest by the standards of the more theatrical megalithic monuments found elsewhere in Ireland. It is triangular in profile, tapering as it rises, narrowing from 0.3 metres at the base to 0.17 metres at the top, and its long axis is aligned northeast to southwest, a directional choice that may or may not have been intentional but is consistent with orientations observed at other Irish standing stones, some of which appear to relate to solar or lunar events. It leans slightly to the north now, which is hardly surprising given the loose packing stones. Immediately to the west, a flat stone measuring roughly 0.6 by 0.5 metres lies on the ground; whether it fell from a companion position or was always recumbent is not recorded. The site was surveyed and compiled by Denis Power, with notes uploaded in August 2011.
The stone sits on an east-facing slope of undulating pasture, the kind of low, rolling Limerick farmland that tends to absorb ancient features into the everyday without much fuss. There is no formal access or signage to speak of, and as with most standing stones in agricultural settings, the approach will depend on the goodwill of whoever works the land. The packing stones at the base are worth examining closely if you can get near enough; they are a rarely remarked-upon feature of such monuments, a reminder that erecting a standing stone was not simply a matter of digging a hole and dropping something heavy into it, but a considered piece of engineering carried out by people who expected it to last.