What is recorded here

Caherkirky holds a massive standing stone, 2.7m high, beside two boulder-burials in flat pasture near the Ihernagh headwaters. The slab narrows towards its base and points northeast-southwest, marking death and memory in the same breath. People may have gathered there to honour the dead, read the sky, or simply witness the weight of stone still standing when everything around it changed.

In flat pasture near headwaters of Ihernagh river. Massive slab (H 2.7m; 1.9m x 0.5m) narrows towards base; long axis NE-SW. Two boulder-burials (CO121-018001-) lie immediately to SW. 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

Probably dates to the Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, given its association with boulder-burials, suggesting a funerary or ritual context. Such stones may have marked territorial boundaries, served as memorials, or been linked to local ancestor veneration.

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