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Index for Neolithic Sunrise Calendars
Cashelkeelty SE, Ireland
51.757114 -9.814262
Three stones that align with the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset.
Dated - unknown
Horizon view - middle and distant hills.
Horizon orientation - this stone row is aligned to midsummer sun over the Knockatee mountain and to midwinter sunset over the Derrygreenia hills.
Structure orientation - the stone row aligns on the first appearance of midsummer sunrise and closely to the midwinter sunset. See photographs below.
Cashelkeelty Stone Row consists of a structure of three flat stones in a line. They appear to be approximately four to six foot high from photographs. A large recumberant stone lies next to Stone 1 that could be used to align on the midsummer sunrise.
There is a limited area of good farming land along the coast here that could have supported an ancient small settled community of a few hundreds - sufficient to build the stone structure. This is quite a rocky area so the availability of stone would not have been a problem. The row does not appear to have any function as a livestock pen or fortification, and the simple design would not make an impressive sacred site. The only practical function seems to be as a pointer towards the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset, which would be of importance to a pre-technology rural society.
This area (the South West coastal area of Ireland) is isolated, so the early farmers would need their own sunrise locator until comparatively recent times, up to the last few centuries. This would explain why the stones are still upright.
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