The Axial Stone Circles

02.08.2026

I had arrived in an area of south west Ireland with a rich assortment of megalithic sites known as Axial Stone Circles. They usually have around thirteen to nineteen stones, with a flat stone usually positioned south westerly with two portal stones opposite. Ahead of me was the Beara Peninsula and these circles were common all the way down to Dursey Island.

The first of these is Dromagorteen, sited in the Bonane Heritage Park on an hour long looped trail. It sits in a forest clearing and is made up of thirteen stones from a possible seventeen, and like Kenmare it has a boulder burial stone at it's centre. Here, the Axial Stone and two portal stones align with the summer solstice sunrise, while every eighteen and a half years the lunar standstill occurs where the moon appears to climb the ridge of a distant hill to the south east. The large burial boulder at the centre had an assortment of offerings placed on it including bones, bracelets and coins, along with a few plastic toys. I had never seen a stone with as many tributes on it. Just inside the circle near the Axial Stone was a mature Rowan tree, where a corn dolly hung from a low branch. I followed the trail around past an ancient cooking pit known as a Fulacht Fiadh and a Bullaun Stone with a bowl like groove cut out of it’s sloping face and possibly intended for ritual offerings.

Twenty five kilometers down the Beara Peninsula