Standing stone - pair, Attigoddaun, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Stone Monuments
On the crown of a glacial ridge in Attigoddaun, two granite standing stones have been quietly absorbed into a modern field bank, their prehistoric purpose now subordinated to the practical business of keeping livestock in place.
One stone still stands, rising to 1.6 metres, its form roughly rectangular in cross-section. The other has fallen, measuring 1.4 metres by 0.65 metres where it lies. Between them, a gap of about 1.2 metres separates the two, and their alignment runs NNE-SSW with a precision that seems deliberate rather than incidental.
Paired standing stones are a recognised category of prehistoric monument found scattered across Ireland, typically associated with the Bronze Age, though firm dating is difficult without excavation. The pairing and deliberate alignment of such stones is thought to reflect some form of ritual or calendrical intention, possibly marking significant points in the solar or lunar year, though the exact meaning remains genuinely unclear. Here in County Galway, the ridge on which they sit is glacial in origin, formed during the retreat of ice sheets thousands of years before anyone thought to erect stones upon it. That a later prehistoric community chose this elevated, exposed position is consistent with a pattern seen elsewhere, where prominent natural landforms were selected as settings for monuments. The site was noted by Seán Ó Nualláin in 1988, whose survey work catalogued paired stone arrangements across the country, and it was subsequently included in the Archaeological Inventory of County Galway compiled by Paul Gosling.