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county list
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| Court-tombs = Portal-tombs = Wedge-tombs = Passage-tombs = Stone Circles | France | |
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SELECTED MONUMENTS IN
Place-names in italics refer to listed entries.
Ardristan: Standing-stone
This is the finest of several vertically-grooved granite stones in north Carlow, south Wicklow and south Kildare. It stands in a field by the E side of the Tullow-Bunclody road, some 2.8 metres high, with 6 grooves radiating down from the top. Reminiscent of the famous "Devil's Arrows" in Yorkshire, these grooves are at least partly artificial.
~ 1 km SSE in Aghade is an unlovely but curious flat stone with a circular hole in it 30 cms in diameter, known as "Cloch a' Phoill" or the Holed Stone and the object of many legends and beliefs. (see Doagh , county Antrim). As with the Hurlstone , county Louth, it may be the perforated door-slab of a vanished megalithic tomb. There are remains of other tombs in the vicinity. ~ About 1.5 km SSE of the holed stone, to the N of Aghade House, is a conspicuous standing-stone 1.8 metres high, with a vertical groove on one side. ~ 800 metres SE of the holed stone, in Aghade Fox Covert, approached through Aghade Lodge or Cullaghmore House, at Aghade Bridge, in Cullaghmore townland, is a collapsed portal-tomb, whose massive, much-grooved capstone (with ?cup-marks) is almost 4 metres long, over 3 metres broad and 2 metres thick (to be compared with the one at Haroldstown , below). It has been estimated to weigh 15 tonnes. The underside, however, is quite smooth. One orthostat, 2 metres high, is now prostrate, and the sole supporting stone is just under 1 metre. ~ 1.6 km SSE of the holed stone, close to Aghade Bridge, in a wood on the E bank of the river Slaney, in Ballynoe , about 30 metres W of the road to Ardattin, are the remains of another sepulchral monument with a small capstone, and a small standing-stone nearby.
The single capstone of this partly-collapsed dolmen, 3.2 km E of Carlow town, is reputed to be the heaviest in Europe, weighing 100 tonnes. It rests on 3 uprights 1.8 metres high, and on two prostrate boulders. A fourth upright stands nearby and might possibly be the remains of a forecourt. The extent of the burial-chamber cannot be determined.
Haroldstown: Portal-tomb
Clearly visible in a field to the S of the old bridge over the Derreen river, 7.2kms NE of Tullow, this fine granite tomb has a door-slab some 1.8 metres high between the portal-stones. The larger of the 2 roofstones is much grooved and it is possible that some of the grooves are artificial as in other monuments in the area. The tomb was inhabited in the 19th century and maybe well before. ~ 2.4 km NNE in Williamstown is one of several grooved standing stones in the area (see also under county Wicklow), known as "The Six Fingers". It is 1.8 metres high, of granite, and has 5 large vertical grooves. ~ 4.8 km NE (5.5 km E by S of the village of Rathvilly) in Tombeagh is another grooved granite stone, 1.5 metres high, and of grotesque shape, with grooves and depressions in it which are all natural. |
