Standing stone
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
Overview
Standing stone is a menhir in Killarn, United Kingdom. It lies at 54.6105° N, 5.7658° W.
Catalogue recordSources and licences
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Standing stone
ContextSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Britain and Ireland are rich in standing stones; the Atlas records many hundreds. Together with Brittany they hold about 50,000 examples across the Atlantic fringe of Europe, and many stand singly in fields. In Ireland they are usually in farmers' fields and are heavily worn by weather and by livestock rubbing against them. The stones are usually difficult to date. They were put up in many periods of prehistory as part of the wider megalithic cultures, and any single stone may be Neolithic, Bronze Age or later. Theories about their purpose remain speculative: rituals, territorial markers, or markers in a system of belief. The regional background, “British and Irish standing stones”, is given below.
DatingSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
No scientific date has been published for this site. Monuments of this type in United Kingdom are generally dated 2800 BCE to 1800 BCE; the site itself may fall inside or outside that range.
Standing stones are associated with the Beaker people of the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age c. 2800-1800 BC.
Setting
5 other recorded monuments lie within 10 km (0 within 1 km, 1 within 5 km), 2 of them of the same type. In Killarn, United Kingdom, 1 of the 1 recorded monuments are of this type.
The nearest recorded monuments are The Kempe Stones (2.3 km south, portal tomb); Standing Stone, Clandeboye Golf Club, Tower Rd (5.3 km east, menhir); ‘Horned Cairn’ (9.1 km south, menhir); Court Tomb von Ballynichol (9.1 km south, court tomb).
ProtectionSources for this section
Sources for this section
No heritage designation is recorded for the site.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
British and Irish standing stones
Britain and Ireland are rich in standing stones; the Atlas records many hundreds. Together with Brittany they hold about 50,000 examples across the Atlantic fringe of Europe, and many stand singly in fields. In Ireland they are usually in farmers' fields and are heavily worn by weather and by livestock rubbing against them. The stones are usually difficult to date. They were put up in many periods of prehistory as part of the wider megalithic cultures, and any single stone may be Neolithic, Bronze Age or later. Theories about their purpose remain speculative: rituals, territorial markers, or markers in a system of belief.
Some stand in groups. The Calanais Stones on the Isle of Lewis, built around 2750 BCE, form a circle with a tall central monolith and several rows extending outwards in a cross-shaped plan, on a ridge overlooking Loch Roag. The Rollright Stones in Oxfordshire include the King's Men, the King Stone and the Whispering Knights, three monuments built in the Neolithic and Bronze Age.
Folklore: the names of the Rollright Stones come from stories told since the early modern period; legend holds that the King Stone comes alive at the stroke of midnight. At Calanais one tradition says the stones were giants who would not convert to Christianity, and in the seventeenth century the people of Lewis called them fir bhrèige, "false men". Another legend says that on midsummer morning an entity known as the Shining One walks the length of the avenue. These are traditions, not memories of the builders.
The Atlas treats isolated stones as undated unless they have been excavated.
When visiting, look at how a stone stands in relation to the landscape and to any nearby monument.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Menhir, Wikipedia: Callanish Stones, Wikipedia: Rollright Stones, Wikipedia: List of menhirs · CC BY-SA 4.0
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 2800–1800 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for menhirs in United Kingdom; this site has not been dated itself. Standing stones are associated with the Beaker people of the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age c. 2800-1800 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
United Kingdom
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 54°36′38″ N, 5°45′57″ WFor a GPS or map app: 54.61050, -5.76577
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
- Portal tomb (portal dolmen)The Kempe Stones
- Menhir (standing stone)Standing Stone, Clandeboye Golf Club, Tower Rd2800–1800 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)‘Horned Cairn’2800–1800 BCE
Court Tomb von Ballynichol- MegalithPortal Tomb von Ballygraffan3300–2900 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)Standing Stone, off Hannay’s Hill, Bangor2800–1800 BCE
Court Tomb von Ballintaggart- CistSteinkiste von Mount Stewart2900–800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q126714947wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- The Kempe Stones2.3 km S
- Standing Stone, Clandeboye Golf Club, Tower Rd5.3 km E
- ‘Horned Cairn’9.1 km S
- Court Tomb von Ballynichol9.1 km S
- Portal Tomb von Ballygraffan9.2 km S
- Standing Stone, off Hannay’s Hill, Bangor11 km NE
- Court Tomb von Ballintaggart11 km W
- Steinkiste von Mount Stewart13 km SE
- Standing stone at Kilcoroon House14 km NE
- Standing stone24 km SE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Compiled from open records (Wikidata, CC0; OpenStreetMap, ODbL) and a regional background article based on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Wikidata Q126714947CC0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0