Standing stone - pair, Coumduff, Co. Kerry

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Stone Monuments

Standing stone – pair, Coumduff, Co. Kerry

On the lower slopes of Knockmulanane in Coumduff, a standing stone has been quietly absorbed into a field fence, its prehistoric purpose now entangled with the mundane business of keeping livestock in place.

That kind of accidental continuity is common enough in rural Ireland, but what makes this site worth a second look is what lies beside it: a large prostrate slab resting directly to the west, triangular in outline and over three metres long, which may once have stood upright alongside its neighbour.

The standing stone itself rises to 2.8 metres, measuring 1.4 metres by 0.9 metres at its base and tapering slightly towards the top, with its long axis running east to west. The fallen slab, if it did once stand, would have made this a pair of standing stones, a type of prehistoric monument found across the Dingle Peninsula and elsewhere in Kerry, often associated with alignment to astronomical events or used to mark territorial or ritual boundaries, though the precise original purpose of most such pairs remains uncertain. The prostrate stone measures 3.1 metres by 1.5 metres, with a thickness of around 0.45 metres. Whether it toppled over centuries of settlement or was deliberately laid down at some point, nobody can now say with confidence. The site sits within the broader landscape of the Corca Dhuibhne region, the Dingle Peninsula, which has one of the densest concentrations of prehistoric and early medieval monuments in Ireland.

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