bocan

A much mutilated but nonetheless impressive monument - one of only two stone circles recorded from Co. Donegal - situated on bleak Mass hill in the townland of Glack-Na-Drumman, a little over a mile from Culdaff village. Its ruinous state is largely the result of land clearance in the nineteenth century, when a number of its stones were overthrown and buried on the site. Either the operation proved unexpectedly troublesome, or superstition gained the upper hand, for the work was abandoned, leaving a dozen or so stones standing. Several more have been removed since, but sufficient remain to indicate a ring with a diameter of 65-70 feet, consisting possibly of 30 stones originally. The surviving orthostats are fine specimens up to 6 feet high. Like stone circles elsewhere, it has figured in the orientation debate; Somerville 91929) proposed an alignment on the summer solstice for it, with distant Farragan hill as a marker. The site affords extensive views across the Inishowen peninsula, and this no doubt would have been a reason for its adoption in penal times as a place of clandestine Catholic worship; hence the name Mass hill.