stones historical ireland

About 5km out on the Ballinamore road is the Killycluggin Stone. The original or this roadside replica is in the National Museum in Dublin.

The ornamentation is from the early Iron Age and contains incised La Tene motifs. La Tene relates to the Celtic culture in Europe from about the 5th to the 1st century BC which was characterised by curvilinear decoration like that found on the Killycluggin Stone.

The first discoveries of this style of decoration were made at La Tene, Lac de N...

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...

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....

An Ogham stone, placed in a niche beside the road, bearing the inscription NETA-CARI NEGA CAGI...

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...