Standing stone - pair, Ceann Droma, Co. Cork

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Stone Monuments

Standing stone – pair, Ceann Droma, Co. Cork

One of the two standing stones at Ceann Droma in County Cork is no longer standing at all.

The south-western stone of this prehistoric pair has split into two pieces and lies flat on the ground, a prostrate remnant of what would have been a roughly two-metre-tall upright. Its companion, just under two metres to the north-east, still holds its ground at 1.3 metres high, though it is narrow and modest enough to be easily overlooked in the rough pasture that surrounds it on the southern slopes of the Sullane River valley.

Paired standing stones of this kind are a recurring feature of the Irish prehistoric landscape, typically dated to the Bronze Age. They are generally interpreted as deliberate alignments rather than incidental arrangements, and the orientation of the Ceann Droma pair, running roughly north-north-east to south-south-west, fits a pattern seen elsewhere across Munster. The stones were catalogued by Sean O Nualláin, whose systematic survey of Irish standing stones and stone rows remains a foundational reference for this type of monument. When the fallen stone was intact, it would have been the larger of the two by some margin, measuring approximately 2.1 metres in length and 0.7 metres across. Whether its collapse was the result of deliberate interference, gradual subsidence, or simple age is not recorded.

The site sits in rough grazing land on the southern edge of the Sullane valley, a river that flows westward through mid Cork to join the Lee near Macroom. The surviving upright is relatively small in height and thickness, so visitors who find the location should look carefully; the prostrate stone, lying in two pieces nearby, may actually be the more immediately visible of the pair.

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Pete F
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