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BELTANY County Donegal

A mutilated but very impressive stone circle crowning an exposed hilltop 2 miles south of Raphoe. The site, which commands extensive views, takes its name from the Celtic pastoral festival of Beltaine, 1 May, and while it possibly did become the focus of this celebration, the monument belongs to a much earlier time. About sixty stones remain in situ, enclosing a ring with a diameter of 150 feet. Many more have evidently been removed or displaced. The ransacked interior is several feet higher than the ground outside and is littered with boulder debris.

Some of the stones are exceptionally large, up to 8 feet in height, and many lean haphazardly outward under pressure from the raised interior. A shapely standing stone forms a solitary outlier 70 feet to the south-east. Possible astronomical alignments have been advanced for some of the circle stones: one, perhaps fortuitously, points to sunrise at or about Beltaine. This monument is difficult to classify because of its hybrid features. It may be the remains of a despoiled cairn, though no clear evidence of a chamber has been reported, and the stones resemble those of a ritual circle rather than a conventional kerb. There are some similarities with Ballynoe in Co. Down, where a burial mound or barrow is surrounded by a ring of massive standing stones.

Click here to buy the Appletree Press book from Amazon.co.uk. For more information click on: Ireland's Ancient Stones - A Megalithic Heritage by Kenneth McNally, published by Appletree Press.

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