What is recorded here

Long Stone is a tall tapering granite pillar on a low esker in County Kildare, marked by a later cross on its southwest face. It stands beside burials discovered in 1987, yet local memory points instead to Father Lawlor or Father Cummins cutting the cross near Kilgowan cross-roads. The stone has watched the esker be quarried, the garden change, and the meanings of the mark shift from devotion to mystery.

Towards the N end on a low partially quarried away esker. A tall (H. 2.3m) thin tapering granite stone (base L 0.61m; Wth 0.46m; top L 0.46m; Wth 0.3m) has a later cross incised on its SW face. While the cross may be associated with burials (KD032-012002-) discovered immediately to the N in 1987, Meagher (1936, 192) records that, ‘… 100 years ago or more, Father Lawlor and Father Cummins lived in a garden at Kilgowan cross-roads …; and it was one of these men that cut the cross on the Long Stone’. (Walshe 1931, 134) Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 15 October 2013 This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 7/1973).

Likely dating to the Early Christian period, the stone's later cross suggests a reused or repurposed prehistoric monument, possibly originally a standing stone with ritual or territorial significance. Its location on an esker may indicate a landscape of ceremonial or symbolic importance.

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