Mayo -
39
Murrisk Demesne
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Site/Artefact
Standing Stone
Type
Stone Row Alignment
Site
Number
SMR Mayo 087 00056
National Grid
Reference
091820 East
282450 North
Map (
1:50000)
Ordnance Survey Ireland,
Discovery Series No 31
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Description
Standing
stones are among the most numerous of the monuments
in the area of Croagh Patrick. Generally considered
to date from as early as the Bronze Age it is not
known when the practice of erecting stones
discontinued. Standing stones have a suggested wide
range of functions such as burial markers, ritual
or ceremonial function, astronomical significance,
as in stone rows or alignments, or used as ancient
boundary markers. Any or all of these might well be
the reason why people erected such monuments.
In the early Historic period standing stones
were used in some of the rites associated with the
inauguration of a king. They were looked upon as
phallic symbols and the king who was a quasi-divine
underwent a symbolic mating with an earth goddess
in order that the land would be fertile.
Near the N base of Croagh Patrick close to the
shore of Clew Bay there is a three stone row
alignment. The stone row is aligned ENE-WSW. The
particular stone (56) that is featured here is the
most easterly positioned of the three. It stands
1.35m in height and is 0.28m thick with a width at
the base of 0.7m expanding to 1.5m further up.
Excavation Details
N/A
Access/Ownership
Private
References
- Morahan, L. 2001, Croagh Patrick, Co. Mayo,
archaeology, landscape and people, Westport
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Other Mayo Sites and
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