Standing stone - pair, Boherboy, Co. Dublin
Co. Dublin |
Stone Monuments
Two granite stones stand in a pasture field at the foot of Saggart Hill in County Dublin, close enough to touch yet clearly distinct from one another.
One is a three-sided pyramid, the other a blunt rectangular pillar, and together they have acquired the local nickname 'Adam and Eve', a pairing that captures something of the odd domestic quality two prehistoric standing stones can take on when they have been sharing the same field for millennia. Standing stones of this kind are among the more enigmatic survivals of prehistoric Ireland; erected as single uprights or in pairs or larger alignments, their original purpose is not fully understood, though ritual, territorial marking, and astronomical alignment have all been proposed at various points.
The two stones are aligned along a northwest to southeast axis, with just 1.3 metres of ground between them. The southeastern stone is the shorter of the pair at 1.4 metres high, its three faces giving it a distinctly pyramidal profile. The northwestern stone is taller, reaching 1.6 metres, and is the more conventional-looking of the two, a broad rectangular granite pillar roughly a metre long and up to 0.9 metres wide. The local name 'Adam and Eve' appears in print as early as 1899, noted by McDix, which at least confirms the nickname has been attached to the stones for well over a century, even if its origins are not recorded. The site was compiled for the archaeological record by Geraldine Stout and revised by Caimin O'Brien.
The stones sit in a field of pasture at the southern base of Saggart Hill, southwest of Dublin city. Saggart lies roughly twenty kilometres from the city centre, just off the N81. As with many standing stones on agricultural land, access depends on the willingness of the landowner, and it is worth enquiring locally before crossing any field boundary. The stones are not dramatically large and could easily be overlooked from a distance, so knowing what to look for matters; two low granite shapes, one pointed and one squared, set close together in open grass, with the slope of the hill rising behind them to the north.