Stone circle, Bauraglanna, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Stone Monuments
What sets the stone circle at Bauraglanna apart from the more celebrated prehistoric monuments of Ireland is not spectacle but quiet strangeness: a large, flat recumbent stone placed deliberately at the centre of the circle, rather than at its edge, which is the more common arrangement in Irish examples of this monument type.
It sits on a north-facing slope of high ground in a mountainous part of County Tipperary, looking out over a valley below, with a stream running close by to the east. The whole ensemble has the feeling of a place chosen with considerable care.
The circle measures roughly 12.5 metres in diameter and is defined by eleven standing stones, known as orthostats, which vary considerably in scale, from low slabs barely clearing the ground to uprights reaching two metres. Several further stones lie prostrate around the perimeter, either fallen or perhaps always intended to lie flat. The central recumbent is the detail that draws the attention of researchers. Seán Ó Nualláin, who catalogued Irish stone circles extensively during the 1980s, recorded and discussed this monument in a 1987 study, and it is from that work that much of what we know about the site derives. Stone circles in Ireland are generally associated with the Bronze Age, erected by communities for whom the precise alignment of stone, landscape, and sky carried meaning we can now only partially reconstruct.