Standing stone in Toorfiba

Located on a gradual, subtle break on a NW-facing slope, in hilly pasture with a ring-barrow (TN039-001002/003) 3.6m to the SW. A standing stone of limestone composition, roughly triangular in plan, (H 1.44m; dims. 0.87m x 0.5m) aligned on a NE-SW axis. The stone tapers towards the top where part of a layer has broken away. It is quite spalled at the top. There is a grassy hummock at the base of the NW side but no evidence of stone packing. The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary. Vol. 1 - North Tipperary' compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 22 September 2008

Dated to the Neolithic or Bronze Age, this standing stone may have functioned as a marker for a burial or ritual site, associated with the nearby ring-barrow. Such stones often held symbolic or ceremonial significance in prehistoric funerary landscapes.