I had intended to climb up to the Copney stone circles, but after a beautiful day it suddenly started to rain. So I checked the map and saw that this site was very close to the road and came here. I was about 7kms away and the weather looked clearer in that direction. Unfortunately, it was still raining when I arrived. Fortunately, I could just make out the site from the road.
This really does give the impression of being a ritual site. The tall stones occupy the top of a round platform sited between two lakes.
I didn't actually get out of the car this time, so I can't really say what the site is like, but I'll be back.
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_And back I am! This time it was dry, so I could wander across to the stones.
The tall stones that you can see are actually a tangential stone row that runs east-west, with the tallest stone (1.4m) at the west. At the east end of this row and to its north are six stones of the stone circle. More may exist, but they would still be buried. These stones are just 50cm high.
10m to the west of the row (and again on the north side of them) are several other stones that could be another row or the edge of a second circle.
This is an explanation of (and a bit of a disclaimer for) the coordinates I provide. Where a GPS figure is given this is the master for all other coordinates. According to my Garmin these are quite accurate. Where there is no GPS figure the 6 figure grid reference is master for the others. This may not be very accurate as it could have come from the OS maps and could have been read by eye. Consequently, all other cordinates are going to have inaccuracies. The calculation of Longitude and Latitude uses an algorithm that is not 100% accurate. The long/lat figures are used as a basis for calculating the UTM & ITM coordinates. Consequently, UTM & ITM coordinates are slightly out. UTM is a global coordinate system - Universal Transverse Mercator - that is at the core of the GPS system. ITM is the new coordinate system - Irish Transverse Mercator - that is more accurate and more GPS friendly than the Irish Grid Reference system. This will be used on the next generation of Irish OS maps. |