Standing stones of the Bronze Age and earlier would appear to be place markers that were used in two basic ways. They may be observing positions themselves or visual targets. So far, all have proved to be useful observing positions in their own right. Many have useful orientations. Only a few are significant on the horizon from somewhere else but when they are we have to ask "chance or design?" and the answer seems to be design.
As observing positions, they seem to occupy sites that are astronomically useful but for some reason were not regarded as appropriate for the siting of a major monument.
Single Standing Stones are potentially the most difficult monument type to analyse: "one stone by itself mocks understanding" (Burl 1983:39) but distinctions are possible.
As with other monuments, it is necessary to explore relationship with the landscape and other sites in the locality as well as paying close attention to size, shape, orientation and any other peculiar characteristics. Thus, it will be found that many such stones have other monuments within sight or nearby and may well be subsidiary markers for them.
One of the difficulties with Standing Stones is that they were erected from the Neolithic right through to the Iron Age for various purposes and more recently have been put up as cattle scratching posts, garden ornaments and even for digger-drivers' amusement. Other seeming Standing Stones may be old gateposts, or stones that have fallen may have been re-erected but not in their original location and / or disposition. One must therefore be cautious but nonetheless it is possible in many cases to recognise genuine Bronze Age stones and to make some statements about them.
Over 100 Standing Stone sites have been visited in West Cork though few have been surveyed. Some listed in the Sites and Monuments Record are no longer in existence while others not previously listed have been "discovered". The most important role they fulfilled in the early part of the study was that of control for it was somehow clear (before survey) that single Standing Stones did not generally occupy sites with the same type of horizon characteristics as major monuments. In the small number of cases where a single Standing Stone did occupy such a site, its size, shape and orientation were always consistent with it being the last remaining stone of the appropriate type and physical evidence in the form of the other stones has been found at three such sites.
Whole Horizon Analysis makes it possible to identify the siting reasons for single Standing Stones but at this stage of the investigation not enough data has been collected to make statements about minimum and maximum requirements. It is possible however to say that they seem to fill a secondary role, mostly as observing positions but also as visual targets. Because the stones that remain today are frequently the disjointed and fragmentary remains of a more complex system it is now difficult or impossible in many cases to reconstruct the original from what is left. Therefore, while some Standing Stones will be found in the catalogue, especially those associated with major monuments, many more await further study.
Traditional archaeology has tended to regard Standing Stones more than 10m apart as separate and unconnected. That view though understandable is not correct, for it is now possible to identify some Standing Stones that are used in various arrangements with others to achieve astronomical aims that are useful but fall outside the parameters permitted to the recognised major monument types. This does not mean that all Standing Stones in an area are assumed in advance to be co-temporal but the possibility of it being so is admitted and the nature of their possible relationships investigated. Thus cases of Standing Stones forming pairs more than 10m apart can be shown to exist, where one stone is the intended backsight while the other either cuts the horizon and forms a foresight itself or indicates a prominent natural foresight by standing directly below it. It seems safer not to call these pairs or alignments at all but rather to view them as a minimal "functional group" having only two elements.
Moyny Lower (348m): solar indicator in a SW lunistice range.
Coolcraheen / Derryduff (1679m): SE major standstill.
Coolnagarrane (CO141-043 & CO141-044, 419m apart): unsurveyable due to intervening houses and gardens but a probable NE major standstill by calculation.
Then there's Cullomane West / Derreengreanagh (29.5m & 901m) where three Standing Stones form an arrangement that is astronomically useful in itself while also linking the sites of two three-stone rows. A number of other possibilities remain for further study.
There are also indications of the possible existence of a class of "anomalous" pairs where two Standing Stones some distance apart are arranged on a NW/SE axis though the stones themselves retain the usual SW/NE axis.
One such case is at Cappagh More where the stones are 30m apart,
another is at Cullomane East where only one remains but two roughly 10m apart were shown on the Ordnance Survey 6" map.
Then there is the officially anomalous pair at Glanbrack where the stones are considerably smaller and only 6.5m apart; but this one is close beside a five-stone circle and it is not certain that they are truly independent structures.
References
- BURL, AUBREY 1983 Prehistoric Astronomy and Ritual. Aylesbury: Shire.