They would seem to be later than multiple stone circles and boulder-burials but earlier than five-stone circles. Possibly a bit earlier than short stone rows, going by territorial exploitation.
With only two stones they are vulnerable to damage and fallen or missing stones complicate any study of axes.
There may be two main types of Standing Stone Pair:
- Both stones of closely similar height.
- Two stones of markedly unequal height.
Clearly distinct in practice but: Two different incarnations of the stone pair concept, from different groups of people, at different times or what?
The usual case in the Cork-Kerry Complex is for the two stone axes to be in broadly the same direction as the overall pair axis. A small number of Stone Pairs are classed as Anomalous and again there are two main types.
- Stones more than about 10m apart (classification issue).
- Both stones have a markedly different axis to that of the pair (functional / cultural issue?).
All Standing Stone Pairs may be regarded as potentially having at least three (possibly bi-directional) axes: one for each stone and one for the pair overall (stone shapes and exact positioning may be significant).
These surveyed Cork-Kerry sites represent about 22% of the known total at time of writing. More about Standing Stone Pairs...