As Mourne Folk do it all so easily...This Standing Stone or Single Monolith is called the Long Stone & stands atop a small hill in the village of Longstone, near Annalong.
Turn up the Majors Hill road(C315) as ya come into Annalong from Kilkeel, which soon becomes Longstone Rd...then yer there.
This stone (2.5m approx.) is probally a remnant of a larger chambered-grave site which was destroyed. There is a spoken tradition from the area that there was once at least three other stones at the site.
It is however known that the stone was annually white-washed ( lime mixed paint ) & played a part in the ritual of seasonal mountain assemblies, as were several of the other Standing Stones & important natural boulders in the area.
Note: Today they have another tradition in the area as part of the stupid territorial-pissing that goes on in Northern Ireland. Namely: it’s painted often green-white&gold to signify that it’s in a Nationalist area. Protestant areas are of course red-white&blue – see Annalong for examples.
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