The farmer told me a sad tale about how he'd been refused permission by which ever department dealt with Heritage in Northern Ireland 30 years ago to protect this stone. A sad tale because the markings that were clearly there 25 years ago are now all but gone. The clearest marking is a swastika on the back of the stone.
A small segment of two concentric rings survive near the top of the stone and a few cupmarks can be seen near the bottom, but these are badly eroded.
The stone was presumably taken from the nearby passage tomb - probably a roofstone - and placed somewhere near to where it now stands. It stood as an ornament in the garden of the nearby farmhouse in the 1950s, but was replaced in roughly the position it had been moved from.
The combination of acid rain and cattle rubbing has been the death of the beautiful carvings that once adorned this stone. Their loss is an immense one, because like those in the tomb some of the motifs are not to be found anywhere else in Ireland.
All Sites Visited On 14th November 2004 « Previous Site Next Site »
A Random Selection of Nearby Monuments
Killabeg (Co. Wexford) | Hurlstone (Co. Louth) | Tobernaveen (Co. Sligo) |
Craigywarren (Co. Antrim) | Dalystown (Co. Longford) | Kilmashogue (Co. Dublin) |