turoe stone

This stone, about three feet high, was removed here to the grounds of a private house from its original position beside the Rath of Feerwore some miles away. The lowest portion has no decoration; in the middle is a Greek step-pattern. The top half of the stone is covered in a profusion of curvilinear ornament in relief which is typical of the Celtic art style known as La Tene.

It is the finest example in Europe of a series of presumably ritual stones decorated with Celtic ornament, some other examples of which have also been found in Ireland (see Castlestrange, Co. Roscommon). The fort beside which the stone originally stood was dated through excavation to the last pre-christian centuries, and the stone probably belongs to the same period.