stones historical ireland

A beautifully decorated cross-inscribed pillar standing in an old walled monastic enclosure, which also contains two smaller cross-slabs and the foundations of a number of beehive huts. Extensive excavations also revealed a 'founder's tomb' and a stone oratory preceded by a wooden structure....

Seven of the eight Ogham stones in this group were discovered in a souterrain at Coolmagort in the nineteenth century and have been set up on this site close to Dunloe Castle. The tallest stone is 8 feet high. There is also a prostrate slab taken from the grounds of nearby Kilbonane church.

Ogham stones were frequently used as lintels in the construction of underground passages. Because of their long protection from exposure, the Dunloe inscriptions are unusually well preserved. A...

Ardmore is the oldest Christian settlement in Ireland. St. Declan lived in the period 350 -450 AD and christianised this area before the coming of St. Patrick. St. Declan's feast day is "Pattern Day" every 24th of July....

St Vauk or Beoc's Stone, a huge boulder on which the Saint is said to have floated across the Irish Sea in the 6th century....

This little known and somewhat difficult to find monument, 'Diarmuid and Grainne's Bed', is located on a farm 1 mile south of Carrowkeel (alias Kerrykeel) village and about 1/4 mile to the east of the road to Rathmelton. The portal stones are a well matched pair some 6 feet high, supporting the front edge of a craggy, cup-marked capstone which has been slightly displaced...

This gigantic monolith is the tallest and most remarkable of several 'long stones' in Co. Kildare. Now standing 19 feet high, it was re-erected in 1934, having toppled from its tilted position three years earlier. Its overall length measured on the ground was 23 feet and its weight was calculated at 9.22 tons. A Bronze Age cist was uncovered at the foot of the monument. Many such pillarstones are thought to mark burials, but few have been excavated....

This tall granite stone tapering to a height of 23 feet is one of the finest examples of its type in the country. When it fell and was re-erected in 1930, it was found to have a Bronze Age burial at its base....

"For the late Stone Age, Knowth was one of Europe's gretest public buildings. To describe it as a massive and majestic masterpiece that reflected the pride and pomp of contemporary society is not an exaggeration"....

Rising picturesquely above a gorse-grown rocky outcrop, on the crest of a hill commanding a broad sweep of countryside, this shapely 'hole stone' is a good example of its type and a familiar landmark in the locality. Typical of places where the dumping of refuse is specifically prohibited, the immediate area abounds in unsightly litter. A tapered dolerite slab about 5 feet high and 21/2 feet wide at the base, it is pierced with a circular hole 3 inches in diameter, neatly cut, with smooth...

Its capstone is supported by three uprights, but on e of these-and the capstone-were erected in the 19th century to make it look like a dolmen. However, the monument itself is genuinely Stone Age, for two of the uprights supporting the capstone are the portals of the forecourt of a court-tomb of around 3000 B.C., which gave access to a burial chamber of three sections in a cairn bordered with kerb-stones. Easier to find than this court-tomb, which is known locally as the Broad Stone, is anothe...