Standing stone, Glanaphuca, Co. Cork

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Stone Monuments

Standing stone, Glanaphuca, Co. Cork

A rectangular block of stone just over a metre tall stands in open pasture above the Glanaphuca River valley in West Cork, oriented along a north-north-west to south-south-east axis with a quiet deliberateness that is hard to account for.

Standing stones of this kind, set upright in the landscape during prehistory, are scattered across Ireland in their thousands, yet each retains something particular about its placement. Here, the southward view over the river valley below seems unlikely to be accidental, though whether the alignment was astronomical, territorial, or ceremonial is a question the stone does not answer.

The stone measures 1.35 metres by 0.55 metres at its base and rises to a height of 1.22 metres, making it a relatively modest but well-defined monolith. Its rectangular form distinguishes it from the more irregular boulders that sometimes get pressed into service as markers in the Irish countryside. Beyond its dimensions and orientation, the historical record is spare. No associated monuments have been noted nearby, and no documentary record attaches a name, a date, or a story to it. It simply sits in the pasture above the Glanaphuca valley, as it has done for what is likely several thousand years.

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Pete F
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