![]() Of the 17 stones, two modern replacements were put into the sockets of missing originals after E.M. 8ĭrombeg is almost 9.5 m (31 ft) in diameter and forms a nearly perfect circle. According to a 1903 journal article, there was once a stone in the center of the circle, perhaps another aspect of the solar alignment. Inexpensive 3D glasses are available here. This alignment may be noted in the 3D photograph, below left. The last rays of the setting sun on the winter solstice align from the portal to the center of the recumbent and nearly fit into a conspicuous notch in a hillside a mile away. You can decide for yourself in the close-up view enabled by a hotspot in the virtual-reality environment (above). 7 The recumbent stone features two cup-marks and what has been interpreted as a depiction of either a stone axe or a human foot. It is directly opposite the two stones, each more than two m (7 ft) tall, that seem to define a ceremonial entrance portal. The Drombeg recumbent, darker than the other stones in the circle, is reputed to be the sacrificial altar. The example at Kealkil is the only other one that has been excavated. Such circles are common in this region of Co. The site is classified as a “recumbent stone circle,” due to the one long (2.1 m or 6.9 ft) horizontal stone at the western edge of the 17-stone circle. One popular guidebook to sacred sites refers to Drombeg’s “rather dark reputation.” 5 This, however, has not discouraged tourism, and may in fact have helped Drombeg to become the most-visited of the stone circles of Ireland. Its organically sculpted, honey-colored stones form a circle that seems an unlikely candidate to be associated with the dying victims of human sacrifice or the blood-chilling wail of the banshee announcing the newly dead. (1979).ĭrombeg (“the small ridge”) commands a glorious location at the head of a long green valley, presiding over a view that gently swoops down to the Atlantic 1.6 km (1 mi) away. John Hickey believed that the Drombeg Stone Circle was built by the Druids. At Drombeg, however, there is just enough tantalizing evidence so that even the highly respected archaeologist Aubrey Burl could refer to the cremated bones found there as a “…dedicatory offering, perhaps a sacrifice…” 4 Blood and gore aside, the era of the historical Druids, in the late Iron Age, occurs thousands of years after the creation of most megalithic monuments. Many of Ireland’s prehistoric monuments have a similar legendary connection to the Druids, accompanied by gruesome tales of human sacrifice, which are in most cases completely at odds with the archaeological understanding of the site. The name stuck, however, and when Drombeg local John Hickey, the man who heard the banshee nearby, 3 began to speak about the circle of stones, the Druidic connection was the first thing on his mind (see interview: below, right). The Drombeg Stone Circle is also known as the Druid’s Altar, a name that likely came into favor during the era of William Stukeley’s promotion of all things Druid in the middle of the eighteenth century.
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