What is recorded here

Three red sandstone gallauns stood on the Kerry shore until the 1930s, when the sea or human hands took them. One reappeared in 1996 during dredging, still carrying the weight of its buried years. The others remain lost beneath the clay, waiting for the tide to remember what the beach forgot.

'The Ordnance Survey 1st and 2nd Edition 6" maps record "Gallauns" at this location. No trace of the stones now remains, though a large red sandstone monolith uncovered during dredging along the shore in 1996 is very probably one of the stones. This stone is 3.75m in overall length and measures 1.3m by 0.9m at base. Local information suggests that the stones were extant up until the 1930's and that there were three of them - two close together and a third some 20m to the north-east. This would suggest a stone pair or partially extant alignment and a single standing stone. The possibility that the single stone had been moved at some time prior to the 1930's, from an original position close to the other two, was suggested by the landowner. The minutes of the County Kerry Field Club for a meeting in November 1940 state that: Lying on the beach outside this gateway (that leading from Annagh Church) is a massive gallaun of red sandstone almost completely buried in the clay.' Description from ‘The Prehistoric Settlement of the Lee Valley, Tralee, Co. Kerry; A Landscape Perspective’ by Michael Connolly. PhD Thesis UCC 2008 Date of upload: 20 June 2012

Likely dating to the Bronze Age, the Gallauns standing stone may have had ceremonial or territorial significance. Local folklore sometimes associates such stones with legendary figures or supernatural events, though specific traditions here are not recorded.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.