Ballynoe Stone Circle

Stone circles are circular arrangements of standing stones, dating from the late Neolithic era through the Early Bronze Age. Monuments were constructed from 3300 to 900 BCE. They are commonly found throughout Britain, Ireland, and Brittany. In Ireland, the monuments are distributed primarily in County Cork, County Kerry, and in central Ulster. Circular sites are not a unique feature of the prehistoric; henges, passage tombs, stone circles, cairns, exhumation sites like the Giant's Ring at Ballynahatty, County Down and the cairn at Millin Bay near Portaferry, County Down. All are circular arrangements of stones that can vary in size from some small boulders to great orthostats. In Ulster,…

The Ballynoe stone circle is located near the village of Ballynoe, County Down, in Northern Ireland. The circle measures around 35 m in diameter and includes 50 or more small, upright stones, with a maximum height of 1.8 m. It is thought there were originally more – Aubrey Burl estimating 70 or so and it is likely the full complement would have stood shoulder to shoulder as at Grange stone circle near Lough Gur and a comparator site of Swinside in Cumbria (which is built on approximately the same latitude as Ballynoe). The site, especially its phasing, is still not really understood. For example, the mound was most likely added in a later building phase. A ditch may have surrounded it…