Drombeg stone circle
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Drombeg stone circle (also known as The Druid's Altar), is a Recumbent stone circle located 2.4km (1.5 miles) east of Glandore, County Cork, Ireland.[1] (grid ref: 24672 35157, Latitude: 51.564553N Longitude: 9.08702W[2]) Drombeg is one of the most visited megalithic sites in Ireland. The area of the circle has been covered in gravel to protect it from the volume of visitors.
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[edit] Features
The stone circle consists of seventeen closely spaced stones spanning 9m (29ft) in diameter, of which 13 survive. The most westerly stone (1.9m high) is the long recumbent and has two egg shaped cup-marks, one with a ring around it.[1] A "Cork-Kerry type" stone circle, it is flanked by a pair of 1.8m high axial portal stones, which provide a south-west axis, and orientate the monument in the direction of the setting sun during the midwinter solstice. The stones in the circle have been shaped to slope upwards to the recumbent stone, the midpoint of which was set in line with the winter solstice sunset viewed in a conspicuous notch in the distant hills. While the alignment is good, it is not precise.[3]
[edit] Excavations
The site was excavated and restored in 1958. During this process a pot was found in the centre of the circle, containing the cremated remains of a young adolescent wrapped with thick cloth. Carbon dating of samples taken from the site suggest that it was active c. 945 - 830 BC. The pot was buried near the centre of the circle along with 80 other smashed sherds, four bits of shale and a collection of sweepings from a pyre.[3]
[edit] Additional features
The ruins of two round stone walled conjoined prehistoric huts and a fulacht fiadh lie just 40m west of the monument. Evidence suggests the fulacht fiadh was in use up until the 5th century AD. The larger of the huts had a timber roof supported by a timber post. The smaller hut had a cooking oven on its east side. A causeway leads from the huts to the cooking place (fulacht fiadh) featuring a hearth, well and trough in which water was boiled by adding hot stones.[1]
[edit] References
- Noonan, Damien (2001). "Castles & Ancient Monuments of Ireland", Arum Press. ISBN 1 8541 0752 6
