Franz Lindenmayr / Man and Cave

Holed Stones in Ireland

Cleer Island, photographed by NICK
- an addition to this website by a visitor through the stone circle webring
I don't know anything about it, because I have never been there myself, but it's there!

"Perforated stones, very similar to the ordinary pillar stone, are found in many parts of Ireland, Scotland, and even, as appears from Mr. Wilford's Asiatic Researches, in India. Abroad, as well as at home, their origin is shrouded in the deepest mystery, and it is not likely that the subject can ever be fully elucidated.

In Ireland they are generally associated with prehistoric remains, and are occasionally found in connexion with our earliest, and only earliest, ecclesiastical establishments. As has been already suggested what they were primarily intended for, no man can say. It is highly probable that they had their origin in days most remote, and that, somehow or other, perhaps like the "holy wells", they became, as it were, pressed into association with Christian rites." (from:Wakeman, William F., HANDBOOK OF IRISH ANTIQITIES, BRACKEN BOOKS London, first published in 1891, reedition 1995)

Some sites:

• Holed stone in Kilmaldekar, Co. Kerry

"The virtue of the Kilmaldekar stone was some thirty or forty years ago equal in repute to that conceded to the Stennis example, and even, in some respects, superior; for, it was further firmly believed by many of the old inhabitants of Kerry, that persons afflicted with chronic rheumatism, "falling sickness," or some other ills, might, by passing three times round it (with faith, and by the offering of certain prayers), be restored to health" (Wakemann 19)

• "Cuir-irra" near Carrowmore, Co. Sligo

  "It marks the point of junction of the three parishes of the district formerly, and still by the country people, designated Cuil-irra. This boundary mark is a thin limestone flag, set on edge; it is 8 feet in height and 10 feet in breath above ground. The little stream which issues from Tobernavean, or Tobar-na-bh Fian, the 'Well of the Warriors', laves its base, which must be deeply buried in the earth. Toward the east side this flag-stone is pierced by a squarish, or rather an oblong, perforation, a 3 feet in length by 2 feet in breadth. From its mottled appearance this slab is popularly called Choch-bhreac, or the 'Speckled Stone'; also Cloch-lia, or the 'Gray Stone.'" (Wakeman 20)

• Clochaphoill", The Holed Stone of Aghade, Co. Carlow

  

  My son Michael and my daughter Julia at that place

• A crawling passage at Knowth

• Holed stone at Doagh, Co. Antrim

"Another presumedly pagan example, standing upwards of five feet in height above the present neighboring level of the ground, may be seen upon an eminence in the immediate vicinity of Doagh, a village in the county of Antrim." (Wakeman 21)

"Rising picturesquely above the gorse-grown rocky outcrop, on the crest of a hill commanding a broad sweep of countryside, this shapely 'hole stone' is a good example of its type and a familiar landmark in the locality... A tapered dolerite slab about 5 feet high and 2 1/2 feet wide with a circular hole 3 inches in diameter, neatly cut, with smooth rounded edges on both sides. In the past betrothed couples joined hands through this aperture as a pledge of fidelity, a custom recorded in the Dublin Penny Journal in 1832, which also has a woodcut depicting the monolith." (McNally, Kenneth, STANDING STONES, Belfast 1988)

 

• Tobar Cholmáin, Burren, Co. Clare

  

  "arched stone for headache cure" (The Burren, - a map of the uplands of North-West Clare, Éire), not far from the Lisdoonvarna-Ballyvaughan road
   

• Holed Stone in Glencolumbkille, Co. Donegal

  

  "Another pillar to the north of the church is pierced with a circular hole through which, it is said, the penitent is afforded a view of heaven." (McNally, Kenneth, STANDING STONES, Belfast 1988)

  "On completing the pilgrimage at the holy well there, pilgrims looked through the hole towards the south east and if they were spiritually in a pure state it was believed they would get a glimpse of heaven. No one gets such a vision now because the people are no longer what they used to be and the class thats going now dont deserve to see such sights" (Morris quoted in: (Logan, Partick, THE HOLY WELLS OF IRELAND, Gerrards Cross 1980)
   

• Flagstone near Ardmore, Co. Waterford

  "On the strand at Ardmore there is a large flagstone on which St. Declan is said to have travelled to Ireland, and on St. Declan's Day, 24th July, it is still the custom to crawl under this stone as a method of relieving backache. One nineteenth century writer, Philip Dixon-Hardy, described this practice of crawling under the stone, and was horrified - so he said - at the sight of the girls' legs, generously displayed in the process. This most unladylike leg show was probably enjoyed by everybody present, including the girls themselves, especially by those who were blessed with shapely legs, and no doubt benefited by the exercise. As usual there was a difficulty. The treatment would not be successful if the patient while performing the exercise had on his or her person anything which had been borrowed or stolen." (Logan, Partick, THE HOLY WELLS OF IRELAND, Gerrards Cross 1980)
   

• "I also would like to point out that there is an interesting holed stone on the island of St cleer, southwest Ireland ,anyone would tellyou where it is!" Nick grinagog@ntlworld.com / 17.07.01
   

• Castledermot
  
  Photos Willi Adelung 2012

• ...

Literaturverzeichnis

Links:

Holed Stones and Crawling through rites

Lochsteine und Durchkriechbräuche

Höhle-Religion-Psyche