drombeg standing stones

Regarded as the exemplar of the West Cork stone circles, Drombeg, alias 'The Druid's Ring,' is a well preserved, clearly signposted and frequently visited monument. Its diameter of 30 feet is typical of several stone circles in the Ross Carbery district, all situated within a few miles of the coast.

The circle is of the so-called recumbent type, with an axis running north-east to south-west, as with many of these monuments, providing an alignment on the mid-winter sunset. Of its seventeen stones, the tallest are the matched portals in the north-east quadrant, standing some 6.5 feet high.
The recumbent, or, more correctly, axial stone, directly opposite, is a cup-marked boulder with a flat upper surface. The orthostats on either side of it are graded for height and have bevelled tops. A degree of symmetry is not unusual in stone circle design, but in the case of Drombeg it is very marked, suggesting that this was important to its ritual function.

The site was excavated in 1957, when the cremated remains of a youth were found in an urn buried in a central pit.