Standing stone, Málainn Mhóir, Co. Donegal
Co. Donegal |
Stone Monuments
In the townland of Málainn Mhóir, County Donegal, a curious collection of stone structures has puzzled antiquarians for over a century.
When Norman Moore visited in 1872, he documented several stone piles west of a nearby portal tomb complex, suggesting they might have been cromlechs; ancient megalithic structures typically used for burials. Later, in 1897, William Borlase observed two stone heaps here, each crowned with an upright stone at its centre, and proposed they resembled cairns that Christian pilgrims traditionally added stones to as they passed.
The most prominent feature that survives today is a tall stone rising 1.9 metres high, which Moore originally noted. This stone actually forms part of a rectangular cist, a type of stone burial chamber measuring internally 1.3 metres north to south by 0.7 metres east to west. The cist is constructed with single stones on each side; the eastern stone stands 0.6 metres high, whilst the northern and southern end stones measure 0.65 metres and roughly 0.3 metres respectively. Adjacent to the southeast corner, remnants of what appears to be a second cist can be found, though only two stones remain: a leaning stone at the southern end that would stand 0.75 metres if upright, and a western side stone measuring 0.45 metres high.
These adjoining cists sit towards the southern end of a substantial stone heap that stretches approximately 14 metres from north-northwest to south-southeast, reaching 4.3 metres at its widest point and rising to about a metre in height. Some of these stones were likely gathered during field clearance over the centuries. The entire monument occupies sloping ground that falls away northward, set amongst pasture dotted with outcropping rock and scattered stones, creating an appropriately atmospheric setting for these enigmatic stone structures whose exact purpose and age remain matters of scholarly debate.