Standing Stone & Grave

A very tall, tapering, granite pillar (H c. 5.3m; lower dims L c. 0.85m NW-SE; Wth c. 0.75m) stands at the centre of an enclosure (KD019-022001-). A cist (KD019-022001-) was found immediately to its NW. Excavation of the cist also revealed that the standing stone was set in a rock-cut socket-hole in the natural bedrock. The monument is the subject of a Preservation Order (No.95). The occurrence of standing stones associated with enclosures is known elsewhere in County Kildare, including Punchestown (KD024-0099001- and KD024-0099002-) and Mullaghmast (KD036-010---- and KD036-017----). (Herity 2002, 23 (66); De Burg 1896, 315, 317, 324; Mayo, Earl of, 1899-1902, 57, 59; Synnott 1899-1902, 454, 466-8; Macalister/Praeger/Armstrong 1912-14, 288-295; Killanin and Duignan 1967, 384; Waddell 1970, 119; Weir 1980, 167) Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 10 June 2011 This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 95/1940).

This standing stone, likely dating to the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, may have functioned as a funerary or ritual monument, given its association with a cist and enclosed setting. Such stones often held symbolic or spiritual significance, possibly linked to ancestor veneration or territorial markers.