These prehistoric monuments stand just 2.15 metres apart, their weathered surfaces bearing witness to thousands of years of Irish history. The southeastern stone rises 85 centimetres from the ground, its width varying between 50 and 75 centimetres, whilst measuring a mere 8 centimetres thick. Its companion to the northwest matches it in height at 85 centimetres, though it’s slightly narrower at 65 centimetres wide and somewhat thicker at 14 centimetres.

What makes these stones particularly intriguing is their deliberate orientation; the first stone is aligned from north-northwest to south-southeast, whilst the second runs from east-southeast to west-northwest. This careful positioning suggests they weren’t randomly placed but served a specific purpose for the prehistoric communities who erected them, possibly marking territorial boundaries, burial sites, or astronomical alignments. Their location on the crest of a drumlin, one of those characteristic egg-shaped hills formed by glacial activity during the last Ice Age, would have made them visible markers in the landscape.

Today, these ancient sentinels stand in good pasture land, having been pragmatically incorporated into a field wall by farmers who recognised their immovability if not their significance. Their modest dimensions might make them easy to overlook, but they represent a tangible link to County Donegal’s deep prehistory, when such stones were erected across Ireland for reasons we can only speculate about. The careful documentation of these monuments by the Archaeological Survey of County Donegal ensures that even these relatively humble examples of our prehistoric heritage aren’t forgotten amongst the rolling drumlins of the northwest.