County: Dublin Site name: CABINTEELY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 93E0164
Author: Judith Carroll
Site type: Standing stone
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 722327m, N 725275m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.263701, -6.166340
There is a mystery around the small standing stone at Brenanstown which is situated on a hillslope at Cabinteely, overlooking Brenanstown Dolmen. It does not have an SMR number, nor are there any antiquarian references to it. Yet, it has, on excavation, been found to be prehistoric.
Because there were no records of it, it was at first quite strongly suspected of being a cattle scratcher or having some such other banal raison d'existence. It was situated on a proposed development site.
Its removal and relocation were requested by the developer and this was considered a probability by the Office of Public Works, dependent on the results of an excavation. An excavation took place and uncovered, directly in front of the standing stone, on the hillslope side, two small fragments of cremated human bone. There were no other finds or features but the stone is certainly prehistoric.
In the few cases of standing stones excavated, Bronze Age pottery, cist burials and other features of prehistoric burial have been found, while at Drumnahare, Co. Antrim, cremated bone unaccompanied by pottery, etc. was found scattered at the foot of the stone. The Brenanstown stone is set in the ground in a distinctive manner, similar to the others above, and there is no doubt that it is a prehistoric standing stone, though it is a small one. An investigation of the area round it having taken place during October 1993, the stone is now being relocated on the same hillslope, about 150m, away from its original position.
30 Ramleh Park, Milltown, Dublin 6
