Stone row, Cloghboola More, Co. Cork

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Stone Monuments

Stone row, Cloghboola More, Co. Cork

On a north-east-facing slope in a short valley that opens out towards the Finnow River, three standing stones have been arranged in a line for what is likely several thousand years.

What makes this particular row quietly odd is the behaviour of its southernmost stone: while the other two align tidily along a north-east to south-west axis, the tallest stone in the group is set transversely, turned at an angle to the line established by its companions. Whether that was always the intention, or whether it has shifted over millennia, is not recorded.

The row extends 4.7 metres in overall length. The north-easternmost stone is relatively modest, standing 1.15 metres high, while the middle stone is lower again at 0.8 metres. The south-western stone is the outlier in every sense: at 2.25 metres tall, it is nearly three times the height of its nearest neighbour and considerably broader. Stone rows of this type, in which a small number of uprights are set in a roughly linear arrangement across open or sloping ground, are a recognised feature of the prehistoric landscape across Munster, particularly in Cork and Kerry, though their precise purpose remains debated. They have been associated with astronomical alignments, territorial markers, and ritual or funerary practice, none of which is mutually exclusive. The site at Cloghboola More was catalogued by Seán Ó Nualláin in 1988, part of his systematic survey of Cork and Kerry stone rows that remains a key reference for this monument type.

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