The Stone Rows of South-West Ireland: A First Reconnaissance

For early attempts to establish a suitable methodology see the papers by Heggie Ritchie Freeman Ruggles Burl Norris McCreery in Heggie D. C. (ed.), Archaeoastronomy in the Old World (Cambridge, 1982); see also Heggie D. C. , Megalithic science (London, 1981). For a case study involving over three hundred western Scottish sites see Ruggles C. L. N. (with contributions Appleton P. N. Burch S. F. Cooke J. A. Few R. W. Morgan J. G. Norris R.P. ), Megalithic astronomy: A new archaeological and statistical study of 300 western Scottish sites (B.A.R. British Series 123; Oxford, 1984). The methodological arguments are developed in Ruggles C. L. N. , “The stone alignments of Argyll and Mull: A perspective on the statistical approach in archaeoastronomy”, in Ruggles C. L. N. (ed.), Records in stone: Papers in memory of Alexander Thom (Cambridge, 1988), 232–50. For more recent discussion of the methodological issues in the context of green versus brown archaeoastronomy, and in the context of wider questions within theoretical archaeology and anthropology as a whole, see Aveni A. F. , Introduction: “Whither archaeoastronomy?”, in Aveni A. F. (ed.), World archaeoastronomy (Cambridge, 1989), 3–12; Ruggles C. L. N. , “The role of excavation in archaeoastronomy”, in Pásztor E. (ed.), Current problems and future trends in archaeoastronomy (Budapest, in press); Ruggles C. L. N. , “The meeting of the methodological worlds? Towards the integration of different discipline-based approaches to the study of cultural astronomy”, in Wiercinski A. Ziolkowski M. Sadowski R. Iwaniszewski S. (eds), Time and astronomy at the meeting of two worlds (Warsaw, in press); and Ruggles C. L. N. Saunders N. J. , “The study of cultural astronomy”, in Ruggles C. L. N. Saunders N. J. (eds), Astronomies and cultures (Niwot, Colorado, 1993), 1–31.

For a summary of the work up to 1984 see Ruggles C. L. N. , “Megalithic astronomy: The last five years”, Vistas in astronomy, xxvii (1984), 231–89. More recent work is summarized in Ruggles C. L. N. , “Two approaches to the study of possible astronomical symbolism in prehistoric stone rows: Recent fieldwork in western Scotland and south-west Ireland”, in Jaschek C. Erny P. (eds), Proceedings of the European meeting on archaeo- and ethnoastronomy (Strasbourg, in press).

Ruggles C. L. N. , “The linear settings of Argyll and Mull”, Archaeoastronomy, no. 9 (1985), S105–32; see also Ruggles , “The stone alignments of Argyll and Mull” (ref. 1).

Ruggles C.L.N. Martlew R. D. , “The North Mull project (3): Prominent hill summits and their astronomical potential”, Archaeoastronomy, no. 17 (1992), S1–13. See also Ruggles C. L. N. Medyckyj-Scott D. J. , “Site location, landscape visibility and symbolic astronomy: A Scottish case study”, in Maschner H. (ed.), Geographical Information Systems and the development of archaeological method and theory (Carbondale, Illinois, in press).

Ruggles C. L. N. , “A new study of the Aberdeenshire Recumbent Stone Circles, 1: Site data”, Archaeoastronomy, no. 6 (1984), S55–79; Ruggles C. L. N. Burl H. A. W. , “A new study of the Aberdeenshire Recumbent Stone Circles, 2: Interpretation”, Archaeoastronomy, no. 8 (1985), S25–60.

Nualláin Ó S. , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, lxxxviii C (1988), 179–256, lists 73 rows of between three and six stones in Counties Cork and Kerry (69 in the main list, pp. 231–40, plus four in an additional list, p. 252). In addition, several more sites have come to light since Ó Nualláin's publication ( Nualláin Ó S. Walsh P. , priv. comms.). Burl H. A. W. , From Carnac to Callanish: The Prehistoric stone rows and avenues of Britain, Ireland and Brittany (New Haven, 1993), p. 211, lists over 80 sites.

Ó Nualláin , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”, lists 103 pairs of standing stones in Counties Cork and Kerry (85 in the main list, pp. 241–50, plus twelve as ‘anomalous’, pp. 250–52, plus six in an additional list, pp. 252–3). In addition, several more sites have come to light since Ó Nualláin's publication ( Nualláin Ó S. Walsh P. , priv. comms.).

There is no single list covering the whole study area, but the Archaeological inventory of County Cork, i: West Cork (Dublin, 1992) lists 344 standing stones and possible standing stones in Alone Cork West Cuppage J. , An archaeological survey of the Dingle Peninsula (Barryferriter, 1986), lists a further 69 extant stones, together with 23 cases reported but now destroyed, in the Dingle peninsula.

Nualláin Ó S. , “A survey of stone circles in Cork and Kerry”, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, lxxxiv C (1984), 1–77, pp. 11–30, lists 48 circles of between seven and nineteen stones. The term ‘axial-stone circle’ is used here to denote stone circles with an ‘axial stone’ as defined by Ó Nualláin (ibid. 3). It is used in preference to the term ‘recumbent stone circle’ (cf. Burl H. A. W. , The stone circles of the British Isles (New Haven and London, 1976), 213–24) so as to avoid prejudging the issue of a possible link with the RSCs of north-eastern Scotland (see below).

Ó Nualláin , “A survey of stone circles in Cork and Kerry” (ref. 9), 30–45, lists 45 five-stone circles. These appear to represent a degenerate case of the axial-stone circles.

Nualláin Ó S. , “Grouped standing stones, radial-stone caims and enclosures in the south of Ireland”, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, cxiv (1984), 63–79, pp. 63–65; Burl H. A. W. , Four-posters: Bronze Age stone circles of western Europe (B.A.R. British Series 195; Oxford, 1988).

Ó Nualláin , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”, Table 5, incorporates data from 99 wedge tombs in Counties Cork and Kerry.

The Irish sites, like the Scottish RSCs, include a single ‘axial’ or ‘recumbent’ stone placed on its side. However, at the Irish stone circles a pair of standing ‘portals’ were placed on the opposite side to the axial stone, and there was a tendency for height gradation towards the portals. At the Scottish sites, two upright ‘flankers’ were placed on either side of the recumbent stone and there was a tendency for height gradation towards the flankers. See Nualláin Ó S. , “The stone circle complex of Cork and Kerry”, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, cv (1975), 83–131, p. 115; Burl , The stone circles of the British Isles 213.

Stewart M. E. C. , “Excavation of a setting of standing stones at Lundin Farm, near Aberfeldy, Perthshire”, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, xcviii (1966), 126–49; Ó Nualláin , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”, 198.

Burl , The stone circles of the British Isles, 191–5; Ó Nualláin , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”, 198–9.

Burl H. A. W. , “The sun, the moon and the megaliths”, Ulster journal of archaeology 1 (1989), 7–21; Burl , From Carnac to Callanish (ref. 6).

Ó Nualláin , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”, pp. 191–4.

Ibid., Fig. 2a. A few examples from outside Cork and Kerry are included.

Ibid., Fig. 2b. The two exceptions are oriented NW-SE, but may be the remains of other types of monuments (ibid. 190).

See Nualláin Ó S. , “Stone circles, stone rows, boulder-burials and standing stones”, in Ryan M. (ed.), The illustrated archaeology of Ireland (Dublin 1991), 89–92, p. 91.

For an orientation plot see Ó Nualláin , “A survey of stone circles in Cork and Kerry”, Fig. 24. For a comparison with the Scottish RSC orientation data see Burl H. A. W. , “Pi in the sky”, in Heggie D. C. (ed.), Archaeoastronomy in the Old World (Cambridge, 1982), 141–69, p. 148 and Fig. 1.

See Ó Nualláin , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”, 190, where it is stated that this is true of all 460 or so wedge tombs in the whole of Ireland. For an orientation plot of 81 sites in Counties Cork Kerry Limerick Tipperary De Valera R. Nualláin Ó S. , Survey of the megalithic tombs of Ireland, iv: Counties Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary (Dublin, 1982), Fig. 36.

Barber J. , “The orientations of the recumbent-stone circles of the south-west of Ireland”, Journal of the Kerry Historical and Archaeological Society, vi (1973), 26–39.

Freeman P. R. Elmore W. , “A test for the significance of astronomical alignments”, Archaeoastronomy, no. 1 (1979), S86–96, pp. S90–93; see also Heggie , Megalithic science (ref. 1), 182–4.

Lynch A. , “Astronomy and stone alignments in S.W. Ireland”, in Heggie (ed.), Archaeoastronomy in the Old World (ref. 1), 205–13.

Thom A. , Megalithic lunar observatories (Oxford, 1971), 120–1.

Lynch , “Astronomy and stone alignments in S.W. Ireland” (ref. 25), 212.

Ó Nualláin , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”, 180.

This was actually the approach taken in Thom's early work, e.g. A. Thom, “A statistical examination of the megalithic sites in Britain”, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, A cxviii (1955), 275–91. It is also the approach taken by this author in Ruggles, Megalithic astronomy (ref. 1) and subsequent work.

For example, the western Scottish stone rows appear to indicate a range of directions associated with the moon at its southern monthly limit, i.e. between declinations −30° and −19°, rather than just the limits of this range. See Ruggles C. L. N. , “The linear settings of Argyll and Mull”, Archaeoastronomy, no. 9 (1985), S105–32.

For the aims and objectives of the North Mull project see Ruggles C. L. N. Martlew R. D. , “The North Mull project (1): Excavations at Glengorm 1987–88”, Archaeoastronomy, xiv (1989), S137–49.

Ó Nualláin , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”. Although Ó Nualláin's list includes a few sites in neighbouring counties, our sample was restricted to the counties of Cork and Kerry for logistical reasons.

Burl H. A. W. , “A county concordance: The stone rows of Britain, Ireland and western Europe”, in Thom A. Thom A. S. Burl H. A. W. , Stone rows and standing stones (B.A.R. International Series 560; Oxford, 1990), 421–540. This has now been updated in Burl, From Cornac to Callanish (ref. 6), 214–69 (for four- to six-stone rows see pp. 245–9), but the updated list was not available at the time of site selection.

Three further sites in County Cork have come to light even more recently ( Walsh P. , 1993, priv. comm.) and are not considered further in this paper, although they are shown in Figure 1. They are a five-stone row at Derrynacaheragh (W181553), a three- or four-stone row at Leadawillin (W395773), reported to be incorporated into a field wall and probably not surveyable, and a four-stone row, now destroyed, at Pluckanes North (W536845).

Burl , “A county concordance” (ref. 33), 499.

Ó Nualláin , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”, 200. For a counter-argument in favour of Eightercua's inclusion, see Burl , From Carnac to Callanish (ref. 6), 169.

Offset surveys were not attempted in this first reconnaissance, in order to enable the largest possible number of sites to be examined in the time available.

However, a survey was carried out in order to measure a hill summit in the general direction of indication (see Table 3).

See, e.g. Ruggles , Megalithic astronomy (ref. 1), 69–70.

Ó Nualláin , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”, 180.

Ó Nualláin , “A survey of stone circles in Cork and Kerry” (ref. 9), 3.

Burl H. A. W. , “The recumbent stone circles of north-east Scotland”, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, cii (1970), 56–81, p. 63.

See Schaefer B.E. , “Basic research in astronomy and its applications to archaeoastronomy”, in Ruggles C. L. N. (ed.), Archaeoastronomy in the 1990s (Loughborough, 1993), 155–77, pp. 162–4.

This was done in Ruggles , “A new study of the Aberdeenshire Recumbent Stone Circles, 1” (ref. 5), where the method is described in detail (p. S63). For the results see ibid., Figs. 1 and 4.

Ó Nualláin , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”, Fig. 29. Burl H. A. W. (priv. comm.) suggests that the site may represent two conjoined three-stone rows.

The horizon distance categories in the direction of and opposite to the preferred direction are: D/A (7 cases); D/B (3 cases), D/C (1 case) and C/A (4 cases).

D/D (3 cases); C/C (1 case).

For such an exercise in the context of the stone rows of Mull and Argyll, see Ruggles C. L. N. Martlew R. D. Hinge P. D. , The North Mull project (2): The wider astronomical potential of the sites, Archaeoastronomy, no. 16 (1991), S51–75.

Lynch , “Astronomy and stone alignments in S.W. Ireland” (ref. 25), 212.

Ibid., Table 1.

The point on the sea horizon directly above the highest point on this island is such a clearly defined point that its parameters have been included, as for a hill summit itself, in Table 3.

Interpreted, as elsewhere in this paper, to encompass a wider range: Actually about 90° centred upon WSW. See Ruggles , “A new study of the Aberdeenshire Recumbent Stone Circles, I” (ref. 5), Table 2.

Ruggles Burl , “A new study of the Aberdeenshire Recumbent Stone Circles, 2” (ref. 5).

Ruggles , “The linear settings of Argyll and Mull” (ref. 3); Ruggles , “The stone alignments of Argyll and Mull” (ref. 1).

Riordáin Ó S. P. , “The place names and antiquities of Kinalmeaky Barony, Co. Cork (continued)”, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, xxxvi (1931), 57–68, p. 65.

Ó Nualláin , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”, quoting Conlon J.P. , “Rude stone monuments of the northern portion of Cork County”, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, xlvi (1916), 58–76, 136–62.

Ó Nualláin , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”, Fig. 23.

Lynch A. , Man and environment in south-west Ireland, 4000 B.C.-A.D. 800 (B.A.R. British Series 85; Oxford, 1981), 69–74.

Ó Nualláin , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”, Fig. 12.

Ibid., Fig. 18.

Burl , “A county concordance” (ref. 33), 482.

Ibid. 499.

Ó Nualláin , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”.

Burl , “A county concordance” (ref. 33), 482.

Ó Nualláin , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”, Fig. 31.

Lynch , “Astronomy and stone alignments in S.W. Ireland” (ref. 25), Table 1.

Ibid..

Burl , “A county concordance” (ref. 33), 497.

Ibid. 479.

Ibid. 451.

Ó Nualláin , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”, no. 96.

Burl , “A county concordance” (ref. 33), 452.

Ó Nualláin , “Stone rows in the south of Ireland”, p. 200 and Fig. 62.

Ibid. 200.

Burl , “A county concordance” (ref. 33), 498.