Stone row, Derrynacaheragh, Co. Cork
Co. Cork |
Stone Monuments
In the bogland of Derrynacaheragh in West Cork, five stones are arranged in a line that predates the peat itself.
That detail alone sets this site apart: the row was incorporated into a pre-bog fence, meaning the stones were already in place before the bog grew up around them, quietly anchoring an ancient boundary within what became saturated, accumulating ground. Stone rows, which are exactly what they sound like, a deliberate linear arrangement of upright or recumbent stones, are a recurring but still poorly understood feature of the Cork and Kerry landscape, generally attributed to the Bronze Age.
The row runs roughly northeast to southwest, spanning 6.7 metres in total. The stones vary noticeably in size and condition. The northeast stone stands about 0.75 metres high; moving southwest, the next two are taller, reaching 1.1 metres and 1 metre respectively. The fourth stone is a point of uncertainty: it sits only 0.3 metres from its neighbour, is comparatively thin and low, and may not originally have belonged to the row at all. The fifth and final stone, at the southwest end, has fallen and lies prostrate, its full dimensions harder to recover. Thirty metres to the east, on the crest of a nearby ridge, a separate standing stone occupies its own position, solitary and upright, its relationship to the row unexplained but presumably not coincidental.