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Standing Stone / Menhir
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With three names – Cloghfinn, Calliagh Berra’s stone and the White stone of the Watching – and prominently located on the crest of a hill that also contains the most obvious section of the Dorsey embankments, I had to return here and investigate. It’s mentioned in Noreen Cunningham and Pat McGinn’s book, The Gap of the North – the archaeology and folklore of Armagh, Down, Louth and Monaghan.
I’d been here a couple of years ago to visit the Dorsey entrenchment but didn’t know about the stone. It’s now sadly fallen and the woman of the house where we asked permission to visit it apologised for its condition and that it hadn’t been re-erected. Ah bless.
On examination it appears that the stone stood in a very shallow socket with some packing stones and was easily pushed over by cattle. It does have ongoing importance in the area down through the ages, but a lot of the folklore is from more modern times. The beautiful views across South Armagh towards Slieve Gullion explain the Calliagh Berra reference and Cloghfinn comes from the fact that old Finn MacCool threw the stone from there. He was a good shot was Finn.
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Posted by ryaner
1st September 2020ce
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