Stone circles by Glebe
The four stone circles of Glebe (also called Nymphsfield Stone Circles) are east of the R345 Ballinrobe Road, in Glebe, three kilometers northeast of Cong in County Mayo , Ireland . In close proximity (90 m × 180 m) they form the largest, but completely isolated group of the so-called “Western Series”, the total of nine stone circles in Ireland.
The Glebe or Nymphsfield circles were noticed in 1699 by the Welsh naturalist Edward Lhwyd (1660-1709) on his tour of Ireland. He measured them and made sketches. He noticed smaller inner circles in two of them. William Stukeley , an English antiquarian , later published Lhwyd's sketches.
The circles
The meadows are accessed via a stile from Ballinrobe Road. The first circle (Cong North or Glebe 1) is relatively well preserved with 23 stones (out of 30), the tallest of which is 1.2 m, but several broken off at ground level. The circle is about 14 m in diameter and within a stone mound about four meters in diameter and 0.3 m high. The gray limestones are badly weathered. The circle originally consisted of seamless stones, like the stone circle of Grange .
Accessible via a wall step, 13 of the former 21 stones of the largest, slightly elliptical circle (Cong North or Glebe 2) with a diameter of 17.5 m have been preserved in the following field. The circle stones lie within a low stone wall. The tallest stones are less than 1.5 m high and weathered. They seem to be sorted by height. There is some kind of entrance to the west.
The smallest circle, which is difficult to reach over a field border in the north, is largely intact, but covered with thorn bushes and bushes.
The fourth circle, 14.5 m in diameter, is inaccessible behind a wall in the garden of a nearby bungalow. The ten standing and six fallen limestone slabs are rectangular and about one meter high.
Another element
South of the circles in Nymphsfield is an arrangement that is reminiscent of the Henge of Castleruddery , but has only survived as a segment of a circle. In Nymphsfield there are stones up to 1.45 m high on the inside and outside of a low wall, the diameter of which can be reconstructed to 32 m.
literature
- Seán Ó Nualláin: Stone Circles in Ireland. Country House Dublin, 1995, ISBN 0-946172-45-5 , pp. 21, 34
Web links
- Description and pictures (last accessed on December 10, 2012)
- Description Engl. and pictures (last accessed on December 10, 2012)
- Description Engl. and pictures (last accessed on December 10, 2012)
- Description Engl. and pictures
Coordinates: 53 ° 32 '51.2 " N , 9 ° 15' 50.9" W.