Standing stone, Rathanny, Co. Limerick

Co. Limerick |

Stone Monuments

Standing stone, Rathanny, Co. Limerick

A limestone pillar standing roughly 1.

6 metres tall in the middle of reclaimed pasture in County Limerick is not, on the face of it, a dramatic sight. What makes this particular stone quietly compelling is what surrounds its presence, or rather what does not: it does not appear on any Ordnance Survey Ireland historic maps, meaning that for much of the period when the Irish landscape was being methodically recorded and catalogued, this monument went unnoted. It sits approximately 110 metres east of a watercourse that marks the townland boundary with Knockainey West, a quietly liminal position that may or may not be coincidental.

The stone was described by O'Kelly in 1944 as a limestone pillar measuring five feet five inches in height, with a base roughly one foot three inches by nine inches, giving it a relatively slender, upright profile. Notably, its socket is packed with small boulders, a detail suggesting that whoever erected it took care to stabilise it in the ground. Standing stones of this type are prehistoric in character, though assigning a precise date is rarely straightforward; they appear across Ireland from the Neolithic through the Bronze Age, and their original purposes remain debated, ranging from territorial markers to ritual focal points. The site was listed by Grogan in 1989, and aerial imagery from both the Digital Globe orthophotograph programme between 2011 and 2013, and a Google Earth image from June 2018, confirms the stone remains visible in the field.

The stone sits in working farmland, so access is a matter of courtesy rather than a straightforward walk. The surrounding area is flat and open, and the stone is modest enough in scale that it could be overlooked from a distance. Visitors interested in finding it should use the townland of Rathanny as their reference point and be aware that the boundary watercourse to the west provides the clearest geographic anchor. There is no infrastructure, no signage, and no formal designation visible from the notes, which means this is very much a site for the quietly curious rather than the casual passer-by.

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Pete F
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