Mayo -
41
Murrisk Demesne
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Site/Artefact
Standing Stone
Type
Stone Row Alignment
Site
Number
SMR Mayo 087 00055
National Grid
Reference
091680 East
282490 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 (55) is the second of the three
stones and is 25m to the east of stone (54). It is
1.65m high, 0.5m thick and leans towards the
southwest.
Excavation Details
N/A
Access/Ownership
Private
References
- Morahan, L. 2001, Croagh Patrick, Co. Mayo,
archaeology, landscape and people, Westport
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