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Newry and Mourne Standing Stone is a prehistoric standing stone located in County Down, Northern Ireland. The monument is protected as a listed structure by the Historic Environment Division under reference 6012. Standing stones of this type were typically erected during the Bronze Age or later prehistoric periods and served ritual, territorial or commemorative functions within early communities.
The stone rises from bedrock of the Gala Group, a wacke formation dating to the Telychian period of the Ordovician. This hard, compact sedimentary geology would have presented a significant challenge to prehistoric quarrying and erection techniques, suggesting the choice of this location held particular importance to those who raised the monument. The local landscape of Newry and Mourne, with its drumlin terrain and river valleys, contains other prehistoric and early historic remains indicative of settlement and ritual practice throughout the ages.
Like many standing stones across northern Britain and Ireland, this monument survives as a tangible record of prehistoric endeavour and belief systems. Its continued presence at this upland location preserves evidence of the deep history of human activity in the Mourne region, though the specific circumstances of its erection and original purpose remain unknown.
Standing stone is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 6012. View the official record →
Newry and Mourne Standing Stone is a prehistoric standing stone located in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 6012.
Standing stone dates from the prehistoric period, and is classified as a standing stone. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Standing stone is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Ni. The official designation reference is 6012.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Lisleitrim fort. multivallate rath & souterrain (2.9 km), Lisleitrim lough. crannog in lisleitrim lough (3.5 km), The dorsy entrenchment, the dorsey entrenchment. large earthwork enclosure (4.2 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Standing stone's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Standing stone stands on Gala Group, bedrock that formed in the Telychian. The rock here is wacke.