Embanked Stone Circle, Castleruddery, County Wicklow

This video looks at Castleruddery Stone Circle in the Wicklow Mountains. It is located on a hill above the River Slaney and near the important land routeway to the ford on the River Slaney at Tullow being only 6miles to the South of Athgreaney stone circle. Whether travelling by boat or land through the Wicklow Mountains, this site was on an important routeway in the Bronze Age.
Embanked stone circles are similar to henges but with one crucial difference. Henges are rings of free standing upright stones. Embanked stone circles on the other hand are rounded banks into which the rings of stone are set and supported.
Reading for this came from Peter HArbison's Guide to the National and Historic Monuments of Ireland (1994), Paul Mulligan's A Short Guide to the Irish Antiquities (2005), Sean O Nualláin's Stone Circles in Ireland (1995), Muiris O'Sullivan and Liam Downeys Know Your Monuments: Stone Circles (Archaeology Ireland Spring 2011), Geraldine Stout's The Archaeology of County Wicklow (Archaeology Ireland Winter 1989), Circles of stone Aubrey Burl and Max Milligan's: the prehistoric rings of Britain & Ireland (1999) and Aubrey Burl's A guide to the stone circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany (1995).

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Stone circle
• County Wicklow
• archaeology
• Ireland
• prehistory
• Bronze Age
• River Slaney
• Wicklow Mountaisn

[sailcat9]

Excellent video! Very interesting, indeed!

[neolithicfarmer]

@truthfullier Im not sure, havnt read that anywhere. All I can get is that the gate stones would have required at least 100 people each to drag them up the hill. Just looking around there arent many large stones on top of the hill but that could be because of the agricultural activity in the area. They're granite and quartz, the main geology in the Wicklow Mountains so Id hazard a guess that they are a fairly local source but with the river just down hill they could have come from further afield