What is recorded here

Gallauns is a broken stone circle on the lower slopes of Knocknaveacal in County Kerry, where two upright stones still mark a once-complete ring of eleven or thirteen. It sits beside a medieval road and near other stone features, suggesting the area held several ceremonial or boundary markers. The stones may have guided seasonal movement, marked territory, or gathered people for ritual. What is missing has not disappeared; it has scattered into soil, memory and the lives of those who passed beside it.

In rough pasture, on a terrace to the S of a medieval road (KE108-013007-), on the lower N-facing slopes of Knocknaveacal. The remains of this stone circle comprised two upright stones (1.4m x 0.4m; H 2.55m; 0.9m x 0.7m; H 1.5m), 3.4m apart and between them a fallen stone resting against outcropping rock. The fallen stone was re-erected following on from the excavation in 1977 which revealed that the upright stones formed part of a circle (diam. c. 17m) of eleven or thirteen stones (Lynch 1981, 65-9). The only artifact recovered during the excavation was a flint scraper. A standing stone (KE108-013008-) which was indicated c. 30m NW of the stone circle on the 1897 OS 6-inch map, but which does not survive, may have been an outlier of this stone circle. A five-stone circle (KE108-013004-) and a stone row (KE108-013002-) lie c. 80m to the E and there are field boundaries (KE108-013005-) to the N and E. (Ó Nualláin 1984a, 29, no. 47) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Kerry. Volume I: South-West Kerry' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 30 May 2011

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