What is recorded here

Standing stone in Foghill rises three metres from sandy pasture beside Lackan Bay, leaning slightly southeast at the junction of two field banks. One story credits St. Patrick with setting it, while another claims it marks an Irish victory over Danes who fled to sea. The stone still points at the water like a finger preserved mid-sentence, waiting for someone to remember which part of the argument it was making.

Located on a slight rise, in an expanse of flat, sandy coastal pasture on the S side of Lackan Bay. Overlooked to S by a low ridge that merges at NE with sand dunes. The stone stands at the junction of two field banks, one oriented ENE−WSW, the other NNW−SSE. A tall, straight-sided, pillar-like stone (H 3.3m; 0.46m NE-SW; 0.32m NW-SE), which tapers gently at the top to a roughly triangular peak. It leans slightly to SE. According to one tradition recorded in the 1838 OS Letters, St. Patrick erected this stone, but another tradition held that it was erected to commemorate a victory of the Irish over the Danes who fled to sea from this location (O'Flanagan 1927, 196 (102)). Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 13 November 2018

Likely dating to the Late Neolithic or Bronze Age, the stone may have functioned as a territorial marker or ritual focus, possibly aligned with coastal landscape features. Local folklore sometimes associates such stones with ancient watchmen or protective spirits of the shore.

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