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Ballinvally

Stone Circle

<b>Ballinvally</b>Posted by CianMcLiamImage © Ken Williams/ShadowsandStone.com
Nearest Town:Oldcastle (3km WNW)
OS Ref (IE):   N581785 / Sheet: 42
Latitude:53° 45' 10.26" N
Longitude:   7° 7' 8.81" W

Added by CianMcLiam


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Ballinvally Standing Stone / Menhir
6 posts
Ballinvally Standing Stone / Menhir
4 posts
Ballinvally Cashel Stone Fort / Dun
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Ballinvally Standing Stone Standing Stone / Menhir

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Fieldnotes

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A last, fleeting visit before the third grim lockdown. I’d been here many times before but never made it to the circle, not confident enough to venture across the fields and over the fences. I’d read Ken Williams’s notes before but had forgotten the directions. We approached from the south, across marshy ground and traversing a small stream and a fence.

To be honest the place left me feeling a bit cold. It’s not the stones fault, just the air of general disregard and neglect and the mud and the grey December lightless atmosphere, all combining to a rushed and cursory visit. The place is puzzling anyway - was it a ‘true’ circle? The stones seem too large to be the remains of a kerb, and if you were to destroy a cairn here, why leave these remains? The north-eastern stone is unsatisfyingly mis-aligned, if these are the remains of a ‘true’ stone circle.

And yet the stones retain a power. All are large, most bulky, except the one at the north-west, the most slab-like. Beside this is where the passage-like stones jut out at a tangent. Over to the east a low double wall runs roughly north-south inside the ‘circle’. It looks ancient. The south-eastern stone is eroding nicely with runnels and gullies that are beginning to fill with soil.

The stones are at the east end of a field that slopes down from the west. At the top of the field there is a large habitation site and over the field wall is the impressive bivallate rath in the neighbouring townland of Drumsawry or Summerbank. A small standing stone is about 200 metres south-west of the ‘circle’.
ryaner Posted by ryaner
6th January 2021ce

Well this is an odd one! There's been so much destruction its hard to imagine what originally stood here, but its not anything like a mis-interpretation of a ruined kerb from a cairn as I had thought in the back of my mind. The stones are massive, much larger than I expected, Burl says four are standing but on the ground its a bit more complicated. There are indeed four large stones, as tall, if not taller, than those around Newgrange but only one is quite as bulky. These stand in a sort of bent and stretched square but there are also large stones prostrate inside the area of the circle, to one side is a pile of field clearance or a ruined wall which has a large block sitting almost upright with what looks like packing stones underneath.
Beside another large upright there are two low stones, one about 6ft long and the other much smaller but they seem to arc around on a tangent from what would have been the circle. Very odd. They are much smaller than the upright beside them and look very mismatched but original nonetheless. There are lots of large and small slabs just visible around the place, inside and outside the circle and there is what looks like a large pit surrounded by heaps of large stones (field clearance?) off to the west of the circle, about 150 yards maybe. I didn't venture over here because of a large herd of tetchy cows and calves watching my every move. Didn't see any of the rock art Martin Brennan referred to but I think some was carted off to the National Museum in Dublin. Gave up looking in the gloomy light, not a great time to photograph or hunt rock carvings!

The owner of the land seemed ok with visitors but the directions were vague enough to border on the unhelpful so a bit hard to judge. Seemed cheery though so do call in as you have to go through his yard and down a very, very muddy track. Wear good boots and a smile and you should be alright!
CianMcLiam Posted by CianMcLiam
2nd October 2006ce
Edited 2nd October 2006ce

Latest posts for Ballinvally

Showing 1-10 of 17 posts. Most recent first | Next 10

Ballinvally (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Fieldnotes

Another of the many Ballinvally standing stones, a slab aligned WNW-ESE. It's visible from the Kells to Oldcastle road and sits atop a small rise. There's another stone about 200 metres to the north-west in the neighbouring townland of Boolies. ryaner Posted by ryaner
22nd February 2021ce

Ballinvally (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Images (click to view fullsize)

<b>Ballinvally</b>Posted by ryaner<b>Ballinvally</b>Posted by ryaner<b>Ballinvally</b>Posted by ryaner<b>Ballinvally</b>Posted by ryaner<b>Ballinvally</b>Posted by ryaner ryaner Posted by ryaner
22nd February 2021ce

Ballinvally (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Fieldnotes

There are 10 standing stones listed in the SMR in Ballinvally townland. Seven of them are north of here, further distant from the Loughcrew hills. This one is just north of a small stream that runs south-west/northeast through the valley floor at the bottom of Carnbane East. It, and the other stones north of here, could be said to be part of the wider Loughcrew Complex. It's about a metre-and-a-half tall and about 200 metres south-west of Ballinvally stone circle. ryaner Posted by ryaner
29th December 2020ce
Edited 30th December 2020ce

Ballinvally (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Images

<b>Ballinvally</b>Posted by ryaner<b>Ballinvally</b>Posted by ryaner<b>Ballinvally</b>Posted by ryaner ryaner Posted by ryaner
29th December 2020ce
Showing 1-10 of 17 posts. Most recent first | Next 10