Standing stone in Carrigeen (smallcounty By.)

In wet pasture on the W bank of the Morningstar River that marks the townland boundary with Rathcannon. A conifer plantation is located to immediate W. Possible ditch-barrow (LI031- 151005-) lies 40m to NW. Not depicted on any OSi historic maps. Identified in 2006 during an Archaeological Impact Assessment for a forestry development (McQueen 2006) and described a following; ‘A possible standing stone located within the proposed development area and is adjacent the scarped edge of the Morningstar River bank. Although this stone has all the hallmarks of a genuine standing stone, its provenance is questionable due to claims from local information that the stone was unearthed from the riverbed during dredging. Nevertheless, the stone lies within an area of Biodiversity Enhancement (ABE) and will remain in situ with a minimum 15m margin of exclusion around it’ (Wallace and McQueen 2006). Monitoring undertaken by Angela Wallace and Alison McQueen under licence no. 06E0538 (Wallace and McQueen 2006) was summarised as follows; ‘Monitoring of planting operations over c. 11.5 acres was carried out over a period of three days. Excavation of linear trenches was carried out using a single-track machine with a triangular-shaped bucket; soil from the trenches was spread out into small mounds for planting purposes. Both the mounds and the trenches were examined. No archaeological finds or features were observed during the course of monitoring’. (Wallace and McQueen 2009, 323). Standing stone is visible on OSi orthophoto taken between 2005-12 and Google Earth orthoimage dated 20/09/2020. See attached Google Earth orthoimages. Compiled by: Martin Fitzpatrick Date of upload: 2 April 2021