tiompan wrote:
tjj wrote:
I've been wanting to ask a 'stone related' question ever since I returned from my Irish trip but wondered if it something that didn't apply in the UK. The information boards at all the stone circles visited in West Cork said that they always contained an uneven number of stones. I recall most of the circles in Cornwall are nine or nineteen but in some cases it seemed uncertain if these were the original numbers.
The reason for so many odd numbered stones in the circles could be tht many are recumbent stone circles and the architecure is often that of paired stones plus recumbent which would always produce an odd number . There are four posters in Cork though , Cappaboy Beg ,Gortnacowly , Maughanaclea and another among the other stone circles at Reanascreena .
Thanks Tiompan ... I fully intend to go back to Cork at some point in the future to see all that I missed first time round. I don't think I saw any four posters unless you count
Cashelkeelty which was the very first monument visited (almost by accident). Not all the stone circles visited had a recumbent stone although the most famous one, Drombeg, did. I must admit I made no attempt to count the stones on any visit, it was much more about 'sense of place' (as discussed on another thread).
Sanctuary (Roy) - I thought of Duloe quite a lot in Ireland because kept coming across white quartz. Duloe is a stone circle I really want to visit and may manage it later in the year. Boscawen-un also has one white quartz stone which must have been chosen to absorb the sunlight/warmth.
Confession time: on the way back down the wooded slope from Cashelkeelty, I came across a small triangular piece of white quartz embedded in the soil. It came back with me and is now on a ledge in the back garden - it does indeed seem to retain the heat of the sun.
