Drombeg: The Druid's Altar and the Bronze Age Kitchen
Cork, Ireland
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Drombeg Solstice Keeper
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225
XP
1 day
Drombeg: The Druid's Altar and the Bronze Age Kitchen
225 XP
Drombeg stone circle near Glandore in west Cork is a recumbent stone circle — a type found only in Cork and Kerry, where one stone is deliberately laid flat. Seventeen stones form a ring 9 metres across, aligned to the sunset on the winter solstice. Forty metres to the west is a fulacht fiadh, a Bronze Age cooking site: when the site was excavated in 1957, the trough was filled and brought to the boil with heated stones in about 18 minutes.
Required Activities
1
of 4
Stand between the two tall portal stones on the north-east side and look south-west across the circle to the recumbent, the long flat stone at the far edge — the axis the midwinter sun sets along
2
of 4
Walk the full circuit of the surviving stones — thirteen of the original seventeen — and find the cup-marks on the recumbent
3
of 4
At the fulacht fiadh forty metres west, find the horseshoe mound round its stone-lined trough — in the 1957 dig it was filled and boiled with hot stones in about eighteen minutes
4
of 4
Look west towards Glandore Harbour and work out why the circle was set on this shoulder of ground
Stand between the two tall portal stones on the north-east side and look south-west across the circle to the recumbent, the long flat stone at the far edge — the axis the midwinter sun sets along
Walk the full circuit of the surviving stones — thirteen of the original seventeen — and find the cup-marks on the recumbent
At the fulacht fiadh forty metres west, find the horseshoe mound round its stone-lined trough — in the 1957 dig it was filled and boiled with hot stones in about eighteen minutes
Look west towards Glandore Harbour and work out why the circle was set on this shoulder of ground
Before you go
The circle points to the setting sun at the midwinter solstice, around 21 December.
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XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
225 XP
Potential total
225 XP
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