A Tradition in Stone

Not far from I live, and just beside Punchestown Racecourse, are three of Ireland’s Standing Stones. One, at 7 meters, is the highest in the country.

What amazed me most about them (and there is a lot to be amazed at) is that they receive little recognition in their neighborhood.  One man I met said he never heard of them but his eight-year-old piped up, ‘Do you mean the Giant’s Teeth?’ He at least had noticed something unusual.  

Standing stones, also known as ‘longstones’ and menhirs, are large vertically oriented stones erected in prehistoric times.

They can be found cross Europe, Africa, and Asia, with a concentration in Ireland, Great Britain, and Brittany (Celtic countries?). In Ireland they were known as a gallaun and there are over 5000 of them spread across the county with over 1000 in County Cork alone.

What did people in almost every part of the world find meaning in them?

Most cultures saw large stones as having special significance. Was it because of their size and sense of permanence? Or, in some cases, because they had an uncanny resemblance to human or animal-like shapes?

However our Standing Stones are hewed by hand, stand alone and have no writing or decorations.  Their common feature is that they are directed in an upward directions as if seeking contact with something above.  

The Pillar Stone of Kilnaruane in Co Cork, got me thinking. It only goes back to the 8th century and is not the tallest (2.1 meters).  It is not blank, it has dramatic pictures from Christian scriptures on it, plus the first representation of a currach and the two Desert Fathers.  However it looks more like a Standing Stone than a High Cross.

Could it be a conscious connection with an ancient and universal expression of search for understanding?