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Anciently sacred because horizon shape & cyclical celestial patterns are in useful harmony at this place.

Orange lines mark the annual solar round. Lunistice positions over the 18.6 year lunar nodal cycle are blue. More about the Solar CalendarMore about the Lunar Calendar

mega-what / ancient sacred places / Ireland, West Cork, Kealkill

Kealkill: Five Stone Circle, Standing Stone Pair & Radial Stone Cairn CO106-006001,2,3

NGR 10539/05558 (IV 05381 ITM 55586 / 51.74519, -9.37006) [Googlemap]

Trajectories 1000BCE. Tap/Click pics for big ones.

Panoramic view with luni-solar trajectories c.1000BCE from Kealkill Five Stone Circle, Cork, Ireland. Kealkill Five Stone Circle is very popular as it is open to the public and conveniently close to the road. It offers excellent views over the Muintirvara peninsula, Bantry Bay and the Maughanaclea Hills. The accompanying Radial Stone Cairn is a fairly uncommon type of monument and the pair of Standing Stones are impressively large. Boots recommended.

North is at the basal step of a hill and indicated by the circle's secondary axis [Pic]. South is indicated by a dip but, from the circle, is not at the bottom [Pic].

Plan of Kealkill Stone Circle, Standing Stone Pair & Radial Stone Cairn. Excavated in 1938 (Ó'Ríordáin 1939). There was no trace of any burials or ritual pits and no date was obtained. The only finds were three small fragments of oyster shell in the cairn. Its radially set stones total 18, the number of whole years in the lunistice cycle. Lunistices are the most northerly and southerly moons of the month. The lunar equivalent of solstices - more. There was also a small arc of stones set under it.

"Two shallow trenches, dug into the yellow clay subsoil, were the most interesting feature revealed. These intersected at right angles near the centre [of the circle]. Each trench was about 8 feet [2.4m] long and the depth varied from 1 foot to 4 inches [30-10cm]. These trenches were filled with dark humified soil and had evidently served to contain two wooden beams which, we may suppose, served to support an upright wooden post at the point where they crossed."

SW from Kealkill Five Stone Circle, Cork, Ireland. As there is no record of any evidence to support the timber theory, it now seems more likely that the two trenches represent base marks for observations, similar to the ones at Maughanasilly and Ballycommane. They roughly indicated the major standstills.

Note the trench with three large sockets on the edge of the Cairn. Its axis, that of the Stone Pair [Pic] and of the Stone Circle [Pic] are all similar. They indicate the general direction of major standstill moonset to the south-west, on a range of hills that run nicely along to meet the sea of Bantry Bay at the minor end of the lunistice range.

W from Kealkill Five Stone Circle, Cork, Ireland. Winter cross-quarter sunsets fall in the bay. Then, on the other side, begins another useful run of hills where the fit is such that a couple of key dates fall halfway up hill-slopes rather than at the top or bottom. The equinox is well marked by a distant mountain, the direction of which is indicated by the axis of the north-east portal stone. This, being a long flat slab and the largest stone in the circle has been mistaken for the axial stone by more than one investigator. It does in fact indicate the north-south axis. A similarly large portal occurs at Canrooska.

NW from Kealkill Five Stone Circle, Cork, Ireland. The north-western horizon seems to have been optimised for the northerly moonset range, particularly at the minor end, though it does also provide useful solar markers.

NE from Kealkill Five Stone Circle, Cork, Ireland. To the north-east, another range of hills provides markers for the lunar rising positions and also for the northern part of the solar cycle, with summer cross-quarter sunrises on the summit of Shehy More mountain.

The circle's axis does indicates the lunar major standstill in this direction [Pic].

The axis of the stone pair is well beyond it [Pic].

E from Kealkill Five Stone Circle, Cork, Ireland. The eastern horizon covers the central part of the solar year but is not very helpful as it is quite close and provides little in the way of accuracy.

The key marker is a quarter-month before spring equinox rather than the equinox itself. This seems to be a common occurrence with prehistoric monuments, if not what modern people would expect.

SE from Kealkill Stone Pair, Cork, Ireland. SE from Kealkill Five Stone Circle, Cork, Ireland. The south-eastern sector is even closer but does provide some useful profile. It is so close that the difference between the position of the monuments becomes significant, allowing the same horizon to be used for marking different events.

Thus we can suspect that the stone pair people were here first. The circle and cairn may represent "side-chapels" where later peoples created their own religeous centres in association with a respected older culture. The taller stone of the pair was originally 5.3m long but, as it was broken, the excavators have removed the stump and re-erected the upper piece.

A Multiple Stone Circle & four Boulder-Burials are 450m to the south-west at Breeny More where the western horizon is almost the same as this but the eastern one is much better. These would be regarded as earlier monuments.

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© Michael Wilson.