Standing stone

The National Monuments Service's description

National Monument No. 247. Standing stone marked N on 1912 map of Lough Gur (Windle 1912, 306). Described by Windle as following; 'At Lough Gur Cross there is a tabular limestone gallaun, the long axis of which bears 200°. It is 6 feet [1.8m] in height, 6 feet 9 inches [2.05m] in width at the base, and 5 feet 3 inches [1.6m] at the upper part. It is 1 foot 9 inches [0.53m] thick at the base and 1 foot [0.3m] thick at the top. As it lies in a garden at the back of a house, it is not possible to correlate it with any horizon-bearings' (ibid., 302). O'Kelly (1944, 29) considered this standing stone as one of five standing stones (LI032-049-/050-/051-) which marked the line or routeway of an ancient road running through Lough Gur (O'Kelly 1942, 87). This ancient road was described by O'Kelly (1942, 87) as 'one which runs from Lough Gur Cross, approximately in a straight line, and in a north-north-west direction till it crosses the barony boundary. It is continued for some distance through the next barony, that of Clanwilliam, on the north of Small County. The track is only visible as such for a short distance in the townland of Ballingoola (Cahercorney Ph.) where it consists of a slight ridge which is marked by three standing stones [LI023-115/072-/-116-/073-/074-/075-/116-] fairly widely separated from one another. When the track ran across a freshly ploughed field in this townland, the plough had turned up much of the road surface which as of broken limestone. Elsewhere the track is shown by a total of twelve standing stones, nine in Small County and three in Clanwilliam'.
Present remains consists of a roughly rectangular shaped stone (dims. 1.2m H x 1.88m Wth x 0.3m T) with its long axis aligned N-S which has been incorporated into W facing hedgerow/field boundary beside Lough Gur crossroads and adjacent to a water pump. A poorly preserved slate National Monument sign encased in concrete stands a few meters W of the standing stone.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 25 September 2018

References

O'Kelly, M.J. 1944 A survey of the antiquities in the barony of Small County, Co. Limerick. North Munster Antiquarian Journal 4, 16-53.

Windle, B. 1912 Megalithic remains surrounding
Lough Gur, Co. Limerick. Proceedings of the Royal
Irish Academy 30C, 283–306.

O'Kelly, M.J. 1942-3 A survey of the antiquities in the barony of Small County, Co. Limerick. North Munster Antiquarian Journal 3, 75-97, 169-84, 222-46.