What is recorded here

One Gallauns stone still stands while its partner lies broken in the pasture, a completed sentence reduced to a heap of letters. The living stone may have watched heristers drop the second or simply outlived the hands that raised them. Either way the pair completed a transaction the basin still remembers: two stones, one valley, one witness left standing to carry what the other could no longer hold.

In pasture in basin of Owvane river near SE foot of mountain ridge. Stone to SE lies prostrate, is 1m by 0.4m and 3.3m L; OS Name Book (1896) records stone upright. Second stone is 0.7m by 0.5m and 1.35m H. (O Nualláin 1988, 251, no.166). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 1: West Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1992). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

Likely dating to the Neolithic or Bronze Age, the stones may have functioned as boundary markers, ritual monuments, or astronomical alignments. Local folklore or specific use is not recorded, though their positioning near a river and mountain ridge suggests a landscape of cultural significance.

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