Links

The following websites cover a large area and cover a lot of subject matter and are all useful in their own right.  Click the name of the website to visit it.  If you know of other links or own a website that you think should be listed here please contact me:

Abandoned Ireland - Really great website which documents abandoned buildings in Ireland.  Subject matter can range from a small cottage to a castle.  It is also very nicely presented.

Big Stones - Good site covering stone circles in England and Scotland.

Castles on the Web - This is essentially a links website providing links to a plethora of castle related websites on the web.  Click below.


Castles on the Web


Denise Labadie Art - The website of American artist Denise Labadie who specialises in painting of Irish sites.


Documenting Ireland - Excellent new website which does what it says, it documents Ireland and features many landmarks which are of great interest.


Early Christian Ireland - This is the biggest database of early Christian sites in Ireland on the web.  Great site with good information and plenty of pictures, some of which are provided by 'The Standing Stone.'

Fionn's Travels - Blog of Fionn and his travels to historical places around the country.

Historic Sites of Ireland - Blog by talented photographer Tony Mulraney covering sites from around the country.

The Irish Antiquarian - Brand new site which I am involved in. This site aims to provide a wide ranging database of Irish sites. Users can upload information and pictures.

Irish Antiquities - Fantastic site covering a wide range of monument types and all of Ireland. The site owner has been building this database for decades offline and has now uploaded pictures from the 1970's to the present day.


Irish Archaeology - New site dedicated to Irish archaeology.

Irish Heritage Towns - Comprehensive site that covers Irish heritage towns, based in Abbeyleix.


Irish Megaliths - Great site by Anthony Weir.  This site contains an awful lot of information and is well worth a visit...well many visits.

Knowth - Site dealing with the monuments of the Boyne Valley.  Great site with lots of information and pictures.

Laois Genealogy - Laois based website about genealogical studies in that county.

Megalithic Ireland - Nice site with good pictures covering ancient monuments in Ireland.

Megalithic Monuments of Ireland - This site of one of my favourites and is regularly updated with new pictures and information.

Megalithomania - This is the jewel of the internet and the largest resource out there for ancient sites in Ireland.  The site recently boasts forums and 3D pictures.


The Modern Antiquarian - User run website based in the book of the same name by Julian Cope.  This site covers ancient monuments from all over Europe.  Anyone can upload pictures and write about sites.  Ireland is well represented but now the Megalithomania forums are more active on Irish sites.

The National Monuments Service - This is the official website of the Irish governments National Monument Service.  Contains plenty of useful information about antiquities in Ireland.  Particularly useful is the sites and monuments database where you can search for a particular monuments.  Unfortunately it doesn't give pictures or information about a site, just it's type and location.

Prehistoric Waterford - A fantastic website dedicated to megaliths in county Waterford.  This site, like 'The Standing Stone' is ever growing and expanding.

Sacred Springs and Ancient Places - Website of Gary Branigan who offers tours of holy wells and various sites in the Dublin/Kildare area. Gary's book 'Ancient and Holy Wells of Dublin' is the most complete study of holy wells in Dublin on the market. A must for anyone with an interest in holy wells.

Seandalaiocht - Great website following archaeology news in Ireland with fantastic pictures and plenty of information.

Shadows and Stone - Website of amazingly talented photographer Ken Williams. Here you will find some great pictures of ancient sites.

Stonehunters - Excellent website covering many varied sites.

Under the Oak - Blog that covers information about Irish saints. Very useful resource for lovers of ecclesiastical sites.

Some of my posts also appear on http://catholicheritage.blogspot.com/ .  Although The Standing Stone is a purely secular site I also post on 'St Conleth's Catholic Heritage' so that people in that area can find information on the ecclesiastical history of their parish.

News, Updates and Visit Blog.

Tuesday, 20th April, 2021: We are still working on video content, and now have 6 '90 Second Guides', which you can find in the videos tab. We are planning an initial series of 10 videos, and we will run another series next year. There are plans for other video content as well, but exactly what form that should take we are still undecided. Soon we should also have our first guest-post in nearly five years, which is very exciting, and I look forward to seeing what our guests have to offer. 

There are some issues with font sizing on some of the menus at the moment, and we will sort them soon I hope, but it doesn't affect functionality. 

Sunday, 7th February, 2021: I have neglected this news section for far too long, and I noticed that it has been over two years since I updated. In that time though, not much has happened. With work, and family life there simply wasn't the time to do much visiting to places and for updating the site...then Covid happened. 2020 was spent largely in lockdown, and I was off work for over 4 months. I'm off work again now. But, it has given us time to really look at the site and see what was working, and what wasn't. So you'll see we have a completely new look, and have streamlined the pages. There were some pages that simply weren't relevant anymore, so we deleted them. Also, the nature of blogging has changed significantly. Social media is where people interact so we have focused on building our social media reach, and are now on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and as of this week, YouTube. We have started creating video content and this Wednesday we are launching the first episode of out '90 Second Guides' series which are intended to introduce people to sites, and teach them the basics in 90 seconds. Hopefully these videos will be fun, informative, and shareable. Not bad on a budget of zero. This doesn't mean that we have abandoned the website, far from it. Rather, we are diversifying across the internet, but the blog will always be here with new posts regularly from now on. When Covid finally comes to an end we shall hit the road again and start visiting new places! 

Stay safe...


News Archives:
-January, 2011.
-2010.
-2009.
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Reviews


-Event Review: "First Shots," 20th March, 2016, Stradbally, Co. Laois. 

Map

This map is still under construction. All new sites will appear on the map and I will load old sites onto it as fast as possible. It's still got a few teething problems so let me know if you have any trouble with it.


View The Standing Stone in a larger map

Maps

The maps I use, from which the OS co-ordinates are taken are the basic Ordinance Survey Ireland maps which are available online and in most bookshops. They are cheap enough and cost about €8 each. The cost mounts up, however, when you buy multiple maps. The area I cover which, at present, is just 6 counties and requires about 20 maps. However, there are no better maps as they include everything. Every track, road and building is marked as well as the majority of antiquities so these are essential for finding sites. Road maps are fine to use if you have a handheld GPS and have co-ordinates but with an OS map it is hard to get lost. Reading them is also easy and each map comes with instructions on how to work with the co-ordinates system (which is pretty simple). The 3rd edition of the OS maps are now being published and are the most current. The 2nd editions are still good though.
I have created a map on Google Maps which contains all the sites I have visited and can be accessed by clicking here.

Camera

All pictures on this site are taken with a Fujifilm FinePix S1000fd. 

With 10 megapixels and a 12x optical zoom this camera is great for what I'm doing.  It takes nice, clear pictures although the stabilizer isn't the best.  I have it on its maximum quality setting so all pictures are hi-resolution.  It's a great camera that is midway between a point and shoot and a professional camera which makes the quality good enough for the pictures and the physical size of the camera small enough to carry around across fields.

GPS

The Global Positioning System that I use is the Garmin eTrek:

I have set it up so that the GPS co-ordinates that it gives are the in the same format as the many other websites covering Irish sites.  these settings are as follows:

Position format - Irish grid.
Map Datum - Ireland 1965.
Units - Metric.
North Ref - Magnetic.

The GPS is never 100% accurate so I note the accuracy of each reading I take so you know what to factor in if you are having trouble finding a site.  However, this will only happen with barely visible sites like ruined barrows.  I need to thank Megalithomania here for providing this information.

Books

The following books are extremely useful and are all used when writing articles for this website.  Without these books this website couldn't happen so thank you to all the authors. This is a growing list:

The Archaeological Inventory series published by Wordwell Books is a must have for sites not in the guide books. Published county by county they cover every site in their respective county. But be warned, they also cover sites that are no longer in existence so it is worthwhile to learn how to use the book properly or you could end up in a field looking for something that is no longer there!

O'Croinin, D, A New History of Ireland, 9 vols, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005. Although expensive these books are extremely detailed and can't possibly leave you wanting to know more. Volumes 1, 2, and 3 take you up to 1691 which should cover nearly all the site in the country.

Kildare:
McCarthey, G, The Forgotten Heritage of Kildare, Nonsuch Publishing, Dublin, 2006.

Limerick:
O'Kelly C and M.J, An Illustrated Guide to Lough Gur, Co. Limerick, Houston, Cork, 1978.

Offaly:

Fitzpatrick, E and O'Brien, C, The Medieval Churches of County Offaly, Duchas, 1998.

Roscommon:
Herity, M, Rathcroghan and Carnfree: Celtic Royal Sites in Ireland, Na Clocha Breaca.
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