Stone Circles (Cromlechs) are quite rare but can be visited at Lough Gur

Co.Limerick, whose shores have a large number of ancient monuments including forts and tiny remains of stone-age dwellings. These monuments consist of a ring of free-standing stones, uneven in number and symmetrically arranged so that one stone, the axial stone, is set directly opposite two stones, usually the tallest, marking the entrance to the circle. Characteristically, the stones reduce in height to the axial stone, which is set consistently in the south-western part of the circle. Though divided into two groups, five-stone and multiple-stone circles, they are essentially one type of monument with a common basic design. Though cremated burials in small unmarked pits were discovered at the three excavated multiple-stone circles Bohonagh, Co. Cork, Drombeg , Co. Cork and Reenascreena South, Co. Cork) these monuments are not primarily burial places but are generally regarded as ritual sites where ceremonies took place. Many stone circles appear to have been deliberately orientated so that the main axis of the circle (a line extending from the middle of the gap between the entrance stones across to the centre of the axial stone) is aligned north-east/south-west - those sectors of the horizon in which the sun rises or sets at significant times during the year, an equinox or solstice. At Drombeg during the midwinter solstice, the sun appears to set at a point on the horizon in line with the axis of the stone circle. In Ireland stone circles are concentrated in mid-Ulster and in South Kerry/West Cork, as are the stone rows. Exact dating evidence is lacking, but they are likely to be Bronze Age in date. Other sites are Ballycrovane Co. Cork, Beltany Co. Donegal, Dooncarton Co. Mayo, Kenmare Co. Kerry

Castletownbere Co Cork