Standing stone, Lerrig, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Stone Monuments
At Lerrig in County Kerry, a single upright stone sits quietly in what was once a circular enclosure, the boundaries of which have almost completely vanished into the surrounding landscape.
That near-invisibility is part of what makes the site quietly odd: the stone itself is unambiguous, a rectangular block of reasonable size, yet the structure it once belonged to has faded to the point where only a trained eye would recognise it at all.
The stone stands 1.19 metres high, 0.85 metres wide, and 0.55 metres thick, with a rectangular plan that suggests deliberate shaping or at least careful selection. Packing stones are still visible around its base, placed there to stabilise and seat it in the ground, a detail that speaks to the practical thinking of whoever erected it. It occupies the eastern sector of the enclosure, a position that may or may not carry significance; orientation was often meaningful in prehistoric monument-building, though the enclosure's condition makes it difficult to read any broader layout now. The site was documented as part of the North Kerry Archaeological Survey, published in 1995 by C. Toal, which systematically recorded monuments across a region that contains a remarkable density of prehistoric and early medieval remains.