Kealkill Stone Circle
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Kealkill Stone Circle is a Bronze Age, axial, five-stone circle located just outside the village of Kealkill, County Cork, a form most commonly found in the Counties of Cork and Kerry.
When the circle was excavated in 1938 it was thought the crucial axial stone indicated an alignment to the north, contrary to the general alignment of such stone circles to the south-west. However, later archaeologists have thought it is the comparatively insignificant stone to the southwest that is the axial stone. There are two associated standing stones nearby, one of which had fallen and was re-erected in 1938.
Type of stone circle
Axial circles such as that at Kealkill were first called 'recumbent stone circles' in 1909 because of their similarity to the recumbent stone circles of Aberdeenshire: both were constructed to have a stone lying lengthways rather than upright. In 1975 the archaeologist Seán Ó Nualláin thought the differences from the Highland rings were sufficiently great to call the Irish rings "Cork–Kerry stone circles" and the crucial stone became the "axial stone" rather than the recumbent stone – from the centre of the circle this stone marks the direction of an axis pointing south-west. Ó Nualláin identified two types of Cork–Kerry circle and Kealkill is in the five-stone category.
Location and design
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- Location map: 51°44’42"N, 9°22’16"W
The circle is set on the slopes of Maughanclea Hill at 400 – 500 feet above sea level overlooking Bantry Bay, on ground that would have been suitable for cultivation. Breeny More Stone Circle can be seen in the distance to the south-west.
The stones are positioned in a somewhat elliptical shape, about 9 feet by 8 feet, and there are two tall upright standing stones and a ring cairn nearby. Excavation in 1938 led to the idea that the large stone on the north side of the circle was the axial stone but in 1984 Ó Nualláin considered that the small slab 2 feet high at the south-west was really the axial stone. The portal stones, the two on the opposite side from the axial, are both about 4 feet high but they are very different in width – 3½ feet and 1 ½ feet.
Sixteen feet to the north-east the two tall standing stones are 5 feet apart. The lower, broader one is 8 feet tall and the taller was originally 17 feet. However, by the time of excavation this stone had fallen, presumably blown down in a gale, leaving a 16-foot broken piece and a stump protruding 12 inches out of the ground. The excavators set the broken piece vertical again, discarding the stump, so it is now 14 feet tall. Six feet to the south-east of the standing stones is the cairn with four kerb stones.
Archaeology
In 1938 two shallow ditches were discovered in the acid peat crossing near the centre of the ring and it was supposed these once held wooden beams that in turn supported a vertical post. If this is correct it would be a unique feature for such a stone circle. Excavation of the cairn showed that there had originally been 18 radially-orientated kerb stones in a ring that was somewhat smaller than the 25-foot diameter of the cairn. Nothing was found helpful for dating purposes and there were no signs of burial within the circle or the cairn.
References
Works cited
- Burl, Aubrey (1995). A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany. Yale University Press. pp. 221–223. ISBN 0-300-06331-8. https://archive.org/details/guidetostonecirc0000burl/page/221/mode/1up.
- Burl, Aubrey (2000). The stone circles of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08347-5.
- "Historical Environment Viewer". Archaeological Survey of Ireland. http://webgis.archaeology.ie/historicenvironment/.
- Ó Nualláin, Seán (1975). "The Stone Circle Complex of Cork and Kerry". Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 105: 83–131.
- Ó Nualláin, Seán (1984). "A Survey of Stone Circles in Cork and Kerry". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 84C: 1–77.
- Ó Ríordáin, Seán P (1939). "Excavation of a stone circle and cairn at Kealkil, Co. Cork". Journal of the Cork Historical & Archaeological Society. Series 2 44 (159): 46–49. https://www.corkhist.ie/wp-content/uploads/jfiles/1939/b1939-006.pdf.