Stone row, Clonglaskan, Co. Cork

Co. Cork |

Stone Monuments

Stone row, Clonglaskan, Co. Cork

One of the three large standing slabs at Clonglaskan has fallen and come to rest on what archaeologists suspect may be a boulder-burial, a prehistoric funerary monument in which a large capstone covers a burial deposit.

That quiet collision of two ancient things, one toppled and one possibly entombing the dead, gives this rough West Cork pasture a particular density that its unremarkable surroundings do little to signal.

The three slabs are arranged in a southwest to northeast alignment, close enough together to read as a deliberate row. The northeasternmost stone is prostrate and measures 3.2 metres long by 0.9 metres wide. The second, standing 0.7 metres to the southwest, reaches 2.35 metres in height. The third, a further 1.6 metres along the same axis, has fallen onto the suspected boulder-burial beneath it; were it upright, it would stand around 4 metres tall, making it the most imposing of the three. Stone rows of this kind are a recurring feature of the prehistoric landscape of Cork and Kerry, typically associated with the Bronze Age, though their precise function remains a matter of debate. Researcher Seán Ó Nualláin catalogued this example in 1988, and it sits roughly 100 metres east of the Inchinagat river. A further grouping of anomalous stones lies to the west, suggesting this corner of Clonglaskan once held considerably more monumental activity than survives today.

The site sits in rough pasture, which means the ground underfoot is likely uneven and the stones themselves may be partially obscured by vegetation depending on the season. The fallen third slab and its possible boulder-burial beneath are the details most worth examining closely; the relationship between the two is subtle and easy to miss on a casual pass.

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