Anomalous stone group, Coolgarriff, Co. Cork

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Stone Monuments

Anomalous stone group, Coolgarriff, Co. Cork

Beneath the boggy ground at Coolgarriff in Mid Cork, a small arrangement of stones sits in a geometry that has no obvious explanation.

Three stones were once recorded here, positioned so as to form an isosceles triangle, a triangle with two equal sides, a configuration that is precise enough to suggest deliberate placement rather than accident. What makes the site quietly awkward is that it fits neatly into no established category. It is not a stone circle, not a pair, not an alignment. The classification given to it, anomalous stone group, is essentially archaeology's way of acknowledging that something was clearly intended here, but exactly what remains unclear.

The only detailed account of the stones comes from P. J. Hartnett, writing in 1939. At the time of his visit, one stone was still upright at the apex of the triangle, standing 1.8 metres tall and measuring roughly 0.91 metres by 0.46 metres at its face. The other two had fallen and were lying prostrate beneath the turf, one positioned approximately 2.44 metres to the north-west of the standing stone, the other to the south-west. The regularity of those positions, and the care apparently taken in their spacing, points to a monument of some intentional design, even if its original purpose is now irrecoverable. Since Hartnett's record was made, the site has deteriorated to the point where there is no longer any visible surface trace of the stones at all.

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