Menhir (standing stone)The Bronze Age
Clochafarmore
Datedc. 1450 BCE
Photo John Donnellan · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Clochafarmore (Irish: Cloch an Fhir Mhóir, meaning stone of the great man) is a menhir (standing stone) and National Monument in County Louth, Ireland. The stone is 3 metres high and is traditionally associated with the death of the legendary hero Cú Chulainn.
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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
Clochafarmore
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): ClochafarmoreCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): ClochafarmoreCC BY-SA 4.0
Clochafarmore is located 1.4 km (0.87 mi) east-northeast of Knockbridge, Dundalk, on the left bank of the Fane River. The stone traditionally identified as Cloghafarmore is 3 metres high. It is marked on the Ordnance Survey map of 1911. It bears the inscription JIM MCKENNA 1912, of unknown significance. The catalogue record gives a typological estimate of 2800 to 1800 BCE.
According to the legend, Lugaid mac Con Roí has three magical spears made, and it is prophesied that a king will fall by each of them.
FolkloreSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): ClochafarmoreCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): ClochafarmoreCC BY-SA 4.0
According to the legend, Lugaid mac Con Roí has three magical spears made, and it is prophesied that a king will fall by each of them. With the first he kills Cú Chulainn's charioteer Láeg; with the second he kills Cú Chulainn's horse, Liath Macha; with the third he hits Cú Chulainn, mortally wounding him. Cú Chulainn ties himself to a standing stone, traditionally Clochafarmore, which had been erected to mark the grave of a past great warrior.
Cú Chulainn continues to fight his enemies, and it is only when a raven (the traditional form of The Morrígan) lands on his shoulder that his enemies believe he is dead. Lugaid approaches and beheads him, but as he does so the hero-light burns around Cú Chulainn and his sword falls from his hand and cuts Lugaid's hand off. The light disappears only after his right hand is cut off.
The region is known as An Breisleach Mór, The Great Carnage, while the field in which this stone stands is called the Field of Slaughter. In the 1920s a bronze spearhead was found in the field, perhaps showing it to be a genuine ancient battle-site.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): ClochafarmoreCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): ClochafarmoreCC BY-SA 4.0
Menhirs are found across Europe, Africa and Asia, with a concentration in Western Europe, notably in Ireland, Great Britain and Brittany. In Ireland they are usually located in farmers' fields and heavily worn by the weather and by livestock. Theories concerning their purpose remain speculative, with hypotheses including rituals, territorial markers and elements of an ideological system. Standing stones are usually difficult to date, because they were set up in many different periods of prehistory.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Irish standing stones
Ireland is rich in menhirs, standing stones that are usually located in farmers' fields and heavily worn by the weather and by livestock. Menhirs are found across Europe, Africa and Asia, with a concentration in Western Europe, notably in Ireland, Great Britain and Brittany. Theories concerning their purpose remain speculative, with hypotheses including rituals, territorial markers and elements of an ideological system. Standing stones are usually difficult to date, because they were set up in many different periods of prehistory.
One Irish stone is well dated by its art. The Turoe Stone, a 1.2-metre granite boulder in the village of Bullaun, County Galway, probably dates to about 100 BCE to 100 CE. The top half is covered with a continuous abstract curvilinear design in the La Tène Celtic style, similar to the Castlestrange Stone in County Roscommon. It is National Monument number 327. For centuries the stone was a curiosity at a lios, a "fairy fort", some 3 kilometres away, before it was moved to Turoe Farm; in 2025 it was moved temporarily for conservation. The "fairy fort" name is a folk tradition.
Ogham, the early medieval alphabet of Ireland, was cut on the edges of some standing stones. In Ireland it is traditional to carry a stone up from the bottom of a hill and add it to the cairn at the top.
The Atlas treats isolated Irish stones as undated unless there is excavation or art to show their age.
When visiting, look at the surface for carving.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Menhir, Wikipedia: Turoe Stone, Wikipedia: List of menhirs, Wikipedia: Ogham · 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.
Photographs
5 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
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 Ireland; 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
Ireland
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 53°58′28″ N, 6°27′57″ WFor a GPS or map app: 53.97451, -6.46592
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.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
3 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q28232348wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
- 03Wikipedia: Clochafarmoreen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Cloghafarmor.jpgJohn DonnellanCC BY-SA 4.0
- Digital Eye–2015–Cúchulainn’s Stone (Clochafarmore Standing Stone).jpgDigital EyeCC BY-SA 4.0
- Cloghafarmore.jpgLouthHeritageCC BY-SA 4.0
- Storïau Mawr y Byd (page 73 crop).jpgThomas Rowland HughesPublic domain
- Standing stone at Rathiddy - geograph.org.uk - 569217.jpgKieran CampbellCC BY-SA 2.0
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Lore, kept apart
Legends and claims
These are stories and claims reported by the sources. They are not evidence, and they never stand in for the dating above.
- Tradition
This standing stone is traditionally associated with the death of the legendary hero Cú Chulainn.
This standing stone is traditionally associated with the death of the legendary hero Cú Chulainn. Lugaid mac Con Roí has three magical spears made, and it is prophesied that a king will fall by each of them. With the first he kills Cú Chulainn's charioteer Láeg; with the second he kills Cú Chulainn's horse, Liath Macha; with the third he hits Cú Chulainn, mortally wounding him. Cú Chulainn ties himself to a standing stone — traditionally Clochafarmore ("Stone of the Big Man"), which had been erected to mark the grave of a past great warrior. Cú Chulainn continues to fight his enemies, and it is only when a raven (the traditional form of The Morrígan) lands on his shoulder that his enemies believe he is dead. Lugaid approaches and beheads him, but as he does so the "hero-light" burns around Cú Chulainn and his sword falls from his hand and cuts Lugaid's hand off. The light disappears only after his right hand is cut off. The region is known as An Breisleach Mór, "The Great Carnage", while the field in which this stone stands is called the Field of Slaughter. In the 1920s a bronze spearhead was found in the field, perhaps showing it to be a genuine ancient battle-site. The stone traditionally identified as Cloghafarmore is 3 metres high. It is marked on the Ordnance Survey map of 1911. It bears the inscription "JIM MCKENNA 1912," of unknown significance.
Source
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Clochafarmore" (English), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (English): ClochafarmoreCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q28232348CC0