I've driven up the lane and tried to spot these stones a couple of times, but with no luck. I'd given up today as well when I the farmer approached up the track. A quick Good Morning and a chat, and I soon found out that the reason why I couldn't see the stones was that the track I was driving on wasn't the track on the map. The stones are to the east of the new track, not the west, so I'd been looking in the wrong place. I was also standing just 20m from the stones whilst talking to him.
The stones are incorporated into a dry-stone ditch below some tall pine trees. This, and the fact that they're often covered in ivy, makes them quite hard to see. I found the stones and stripped some of the ivy off them. As I was standing on the top of the field wall when I did this I was disappointed by the larger stone's size. Then I jumped down and flattened the nettles and weeds at the base of the wall revealing the full 3m of the tallest stone. It's a whopper! Such a shame it's hidden from view. The smaller stone is to the west of the other and is a little under 2m tall.
The trees and bushes around these stones make it difficult to assess any possibilities about why they were erected here. It isn't possible to walk away from the stone to get a clear view, because the farm is now a deer farm and all the fields are surrounded by 4m high fencing. Luckily for us the stones were left out of the enclosures, so we can go and see them ... if we can find them.
A Random Selection of Nearby Monuments
Boherboy (Co. Dublin) | Aughavanlomaun (Co. Cork) | Saval More (Co. Down) |
Ashtown (Co. Waterford) | Raheens (Co. Waterford) | Cotts (Co. Wexford) |