The example at Cloghlucas in north County Cork is a little different. Rising to just over two metres, it is square in cross-section, each face a neat quarter-metre across, and it tapers steadily to a point at the top, giving it something closer to the profile of a stone needle than the blunt, hulking form more commonly associated with prehistoric monuments. It leans slightly to the north, presumably the slow work of centuries of ground movement, and its long axis runs east to west.

Standing stones are among the most enigmatic survivals of prehistoric Ireland. They were erected during the Bronze Age in most cases, though the purposes attributed to them range from territorial markers and burial indicators to astronomical alignments, and none of these explanations has ever been conclusively settled. What makes the Cloghlucas stone worth pausing over is less its age than its form. The deliberate squaring of the stone, with its four defined faces and its upward taper, suggests a degree of careful shaping that goes beyond simply planting a suitable boulder upright in the ground. It sits in level pasture, which at least means the surrounding landscape offers no dramatic natural feature to which it might obviously relate, leaving the stone to assert its presence on its own terms.