Castleruddery

The Castleruddery stone circle

Castleruddery ( Irish Caisleán an Ridire ; also called "Druidical circle" or "Castle of the knight") is a comparatively small henge or a so-called "Embanked Stone Circle", on the River Slaney near Baltinglass in the west of County Wicklow in Ireland . Systems of this type originated in Ireland around 2,500 BC. In the late Neolithic period in small numbers and were probably built for ritual purposes.

description

The henge, built on a gentle slope near Castleruddery Lower, measures 30 m in diameter and consists of 29 large boulders (originally 40) surrounded by a flat wall. Some stones are standing, others are on their longitudinal axis. The district is largely intact only in the north. A number of small boulders and a few boulders showing explosive marks are in the interior or next to the circle. The 1.3 m wide entrance portal is formed by two particularly large (2.4 × 1.2 m and 3.0 × 1.8 m) quartz blocks weighing more than 15 tons .

The arrangement is reminiscent of an enclosure in Nymphsfield in County Mayo, which has only survived as a segment of a circle, where stones up to 1.45 m high stand on the inside and outside of a low wall, the diameter of which can be reconstructed to 32 m. The memorial has more of the shape of an "Embanked Stone Circle", as can be seen in Grange .

A medieval moth lies about four kilometers southwest of the village of Donard. The Boleycarigeen stone circle is also four kilometers away.

See also

• Megalithic sites in Ireland

literature

• Peter Harbison : Guide to the National Monuments of Ireland , Dublin 1970, p. 252 ISBN 0-7171-0758-2

Individual evidence

1. ↑ So-called "mounded stone circles " (Engl. "Embanked Stone Circle"). In this type of stone circle, the circle (see also Grange stone circle ) lies within or on a low, round stone wall. The circles fall in the middle period according to Aubrey Burl (2670–1975 AD)
2. ↑ Stone circle whose ring stones are set inside or on a low, wide stone or earth wall. These circles fall in the middle period according to Aubrey Burl's three-phase theory of the development of the stone circles (2670–1975 BC) In Ireland, the Grange stone circle also has a similar shape.

Web links

Commons : Castleruddery  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Description of the basic plan and pictures (last accessed on December 10, 2012)
• Pictures and map (last accessed on December 10, 2012)

Coordinates: 52 ° 59 ′ 28 "  N , 6 ° 38 ′ 12.5"  W.