Kilnaruane Cross Slab — any info?

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CianMcLiam C
CianMcLiam Jan 15, 2007 00:08:12

I was at this (very nice) cross slab near Bantry today, this site is very unusual to say the least! There are loads of small stones pushed over around the top of the hill where the carved slab stands and around them is a circular-like bank up to two foot high in places.

I dont know anything about the history of the place but as I looked around I got a very definite feeling that this was once the site of a stone circle of the 'Carrigagulla' type with lots of small stones. It looked like four stones had been carved and placed around the slab in a square. The carvings were long, deep and straight gouges all the way down one side terminating in a cube cut out of the top side of the stone. What struck me was that the stones seemed to have been carved like that and then stuck into the gound upside down! One has been uprooted and it domed top was once at the bottom of the socket. Other similar stones are just lying around the place and one very small one looks like its just been pushed over a bit.

Here's the slab:
http://cloghmore.bravepages.com/cork/kilnaruane.html

Anyone with info, please let me know. I had a feeling this was a strange christianising ritual to destroy a stone circle but would love to know either way.

G gjrk
gjrk Jan 15, 2007 01:16:42
Replying to CianMcLiam

Sorry, no facts about the possible Christianisation, but did you notice the fence? The photos you linked to have what looks like a metal post and rail but when I was there a few months ago (strangely enough, to look at the fence as an example of what to put around a monument), there was this cattle smashed chain wire thing on wooden posts with a nice little trench scooped all the way round the outside by busy hooves. All topped off by a fresh dollop of cow dung right inside beside the pillar.
Lovely.

F FourWinds
FourWinds Jan 15, 2007 07:27:35
Replying to CianMcLiam

Don't suppose you saw if the bullaun stone is still there?

There is a similar stone to the ones you mention at Caheravart eclesiastic enclosure. These groups of four stones are oddities - there are two sets at Ashtown near Roundwood. I think they're more agricultural than anything else. There's also one at the back of a ruined farm building near Boleycariggeen, but these are all close-set stones about 1.5m apart.

Kilnaraune is built on a little hillock-type-thing and so could easily be the site of an earlier monument. However, the archeos reckon that the four stones may have ' formed the hinge-stones/corner stones in some form of structure no longer in existence.' Hourihane & Hourihane 1979.