Stone circle - multiple-stone, Dunbeacon, Co. Cork

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Stone Monuments

Stone circle – multiple-stone, Dunbeacon, Co. Cork

On the western shoulder of Mount Corrin, above the inner southern end of Dunmanus Bay, a ring of prehistoric stones sits in a state of quiet incompletion.

Of the eleven stones that once formed the circle, six still stand upright while five lie prostrate on the ground, giving the site the slightly arrested quality of something interrupted rather than simply ruined. At the centre, a single standing stone leans noticeably to the south, as though inclining away from the prevailing weather off the bay below.

The site belongs to a tradition of multiple-stone circles that appears with some concentration across west Cork and parts of Kerry, generally attributed to the Bronze Age. The orthostats, which is the term for the upright structural stones in such monuments, range here from roughly 1.6 to 1.9 metres in height, with the circle itself measuring around 8 metres in internal diameter. That central leaning stone, standing about 1.1 metres tall and considerably thinner than the orthostats around it, is a recurring feature of this circle type in the region, though its precise function within these monuments remains a matter of ongoing discussion among archaeologists. The site was catalogued by Sean O Nualláin in 1984 and by Roberts in 1988, both of whom documented its layout as part of broader surveys of the Cork and Kerry stone circle tradition.

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