Stone circle - five-stone, Carrigonirtane, Co. Cork

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Stone Monuments

Stone circle – five-stone, Carrigonirtane, Co. Cork

On a terrace above the Foherish River valley in mid Cork, a small prehistoric stone circle survives in a quietly incomplete state, its western entrance stone broken off at the stump, its axial stone still in place, and a large prostrate slab lying some distance away that may or may not have once stood upright.

Five-stone circles are a distinctive Cork and Kerry tradition, smaller and more intimate than the great multi-stone rings found elsewhere in Ireland, and the surviving elements here follow the characteristic pattern: an axial stone at the back of the circle, opposite a pair of entrance stones that frame a narrow threshold facing outward.

The circle sits on an east-facing slope, oriented along a main axis running roughly north-northeast to south-southwest, with an internal measurement of approximately 2.3 metres. That modest span gives a sense of how enclosed the space would have been, barely wider than a doorway. A prostrate slab measuring 2.7 metres by 0.9 metres by 0.6 metres lies about 4.5 metres to the west-northwest, and its size and position raise the possibility that it was once a standing stone associated with the monument, though no firm conclusion has been reached. The Foherish River valley setting, a terrace on an east-facing slope, is typical of the way Bronze Age communities in this part of Munster tended to situate such monuments, favouring elevated but sheltered ground with clear sight lines across the surrounding landscape.

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