Stone row, Foildarrig, Co. Cork

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Stone Monuments

Stone row, Foildarrig, Co. Cork

Of the three stones that once stood in a row on level pasture above Bear Haven in West Cork, only one is still upright.

The other two lie prostrate in the grass, their bulk suggesting they were never small things to begin with: one measures nearly three and a half metres in length, the other at least two and a half. The standing stone reaches 2.8 metres, which is tall enough to read clearly against the sky, especially on ground that looks out over the sheltered waters of the haven below. A third stone, the most south-westerly of the trio, is partly concealed, its full dimensions uncertain.

Stone rows are a category of prehistoric monument found across Ireland and Britain, typically associated with the Bronze Age, though their precise purpose remains debated. They may have had astronomical, ceremonial, or territorial functions, and their alignments are sometimes thought to correspond with solar or lunar events. This particular row runs along a north-east to south-west axis, a fairly common orientation among such monuments. The site at Foildarrig was recorded and catalogued by Seán Ó Nualláin in 1988, as part of a broader effort to document megalithic rows across the country, and it appears in the Archaeological Inventory of County Cork published in 1992. The spacing between the stones is consistent and deliberate: 2.15 metres between the north-eastern and middle stones, and roughly 3 metres between the middle and south-western ones, suggesting a considered arrangement rather than any accidental grouping.

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