stone circles ireland

In the parish of Abbeylara there are two well preserved remains of stone circles. There are also in this area surviving traces of what appear to be megalithic burials. There is no doubt of the antiquity of these stone circles and of their importance as archaelogical remains of the Bronze Age period of our history. They stand as memorials to those who recognised the sun as the centre of the universe, the source of all life....

The notion that people could be turned into stone in punishment for some misdemeanour or other is a recurring theme in Gaelic folklore, and here at Athgreany in the stillness of the Wicklow hills is a strange troupe of dancers and a piper, all ossified on the spot for violating the Sabbath with their merrymaking. The circle stands on the crest of a low hill and consists of fourteen granite boulders and an outlier (representing the luckless piper) 40 yards to the north-east. The tallest ci...

Stone Circle: A stone circle, 100 feet in diameter, with an interior and exterior facing of stones with a bank in between. Some very large boulders are used in this circle, and some are lying down.
Motte: A motte surrounded by a ditch which is rounded at the southern side but squared at the north. Further to the south is a raised area, which may also have been used like a bailey for defensive purposes....

Located across the Glenealo river from St. Kevin's Kitchen, the Deer Stone is thought to be a baptismal font of great antiquity. When the wife of one of the monastery workmen died during childbirth in the seventh century, Kevin is said to have prayed here and a doe came daily and deposited a supply of milk into the hollow of the stone for the baby. According to legend the child later became a disciple of Kevin....

Hugh stones of a Neolithic passage tomb inscribed with fascinating designs of early art. Superb view....

An ambiguous group of Bronze Age ritual and funerary monuments, overlying traces of Neolithic occupation in an area of cutaway bog to the south of the Sperrin Mountains. Uncovered in stages since 1945, the structures comprise stone circles, tangential alignments and cairns, remarkable for their complexity and extent. It may safely be assumed that others await discovery beneath the all-pervading peat. As is usual in the Ulster Circles, the stones here are mostly of no great height, with the exc...

A fine stone circle on a hill-top with a commanding view. It is still composed of 60 stones, though originally there were many more. There is one stone standing outside the circle....

Situated at a height of 570 feet above sea level and 3 miles inland from Ross Carbery, rush-stifled Reanascreena is a little known megalithic ring of twelve uprights and an axial stone. It is surrounded by a 12-feet wide fosse with an external earthen bank, a rare feature which suggests close cultural links with the henge monuments. A comparable but smaller embanked stone circle is at Glentane East in the same country.

When the Reanascreena site was scientifically examined in the...

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 seven...

Five stones forming a miniature stone circle, two standing stones and the remains of another circle with small stones.
From the Hill-top where it is sited, there is a good view of Bantry Bay....