Standing stone, Srugreana, Co. Kerry

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Stone Monuments

Standing stone, Srugreana, Co. Kerry

On a gently sloping hillside west of the ridge connecting Coomduff and Keelnagore in South Kerry, a single upright stone rises to a height of 3.45 metres above the surrounding bog.

It has stood there long enough that packing stones, the smaller rocks wedged around the base to keep it stable during or after erection, are still visible at its north-western side, a quiet sign of the care taken by whoever raised it. The stone leans slightly to the south-east now, but it remains imposing: rectangular when seen from the side, trapezoidal at the base where it measures 1.3 metres across at its widest and half a metre deep, and oriented on a roughly ENE-WSW axis.

Standing stones of this kind appear throughout prehistoric Ireland, though their precise purposes remain contested. Some are thought to mark boundaries, routeways, or burials; others may have held astronomical or ceremonial significance. What can be said of this particular example is that its position was deliberately chosen. To the west, the land opens out across a wide expanse of bog toward the Carhan river basin, giving the stone a commanding relationship with the landscape rather than a merely incidental one. The ridge it sits beside connects two upland areas of the Iveragh Peninsula, and the stone occupies a spot just off that natural corridor, visible against the sky from lower ground. Whether its builders were marking a route, a territory, or something else entirely is a question the site declines to answer.

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Pete F
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