Ritual site - holy/saint's stone

The National Monuments Service's description

Marked on the 1839 and 1940 eds of the OS 6-inch map and described in gothic lettering on both as ‘Fairy Stone’. It is situated on the NE-SW beach in the inter-tidal zone, c. 20m from the bottom of the clay cliffs (H c. 10m) that overlook it. The stone was described as ‘conical, 4 feet 6 inches in height, 8 feet in diameter (H c. 1.35m ; diam. c. 2.45m)’ with no distinguishing features and no traditions connected with it (OSFM 1940). One piece of what is probably rock-outcrop (diam. c. 1-1.5m; H 0.4m) is protruding from one of many rises on the shingle-covered beach. It is easily visible from a distance, but appears to be wholly natural.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 3 January, 2014

References

OSFM. Ordnance Survey Field Memorandums. A collection of survey notes and descriptions of monuments on pro-forma sheets compiled by Ordnance Survey field staff in the course of the 1:2500 map revision of various counties, mostly dating from 1931 – early 1960s. These unpublished manuscripts form part of the records of the Archaeological Survey of Ireland, National Monuments Service Archive, Dublin.