Aghade Holed Stone or Cloghaphoill is a large holed stone and
Irish National Monument located in Aghade,
County Carlow
County Carlow ( ; ga, Contae Cheatharlach) is a county located in the South-East Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Carlow is the second smallest and the third least populous of Ireland's 32 traditional counties. Carlow Cou ...
, Ireland.
Description
The holed stone is
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
, measures approximately 2.4 x 1.56 x 0.46 metres, weighs close to 5
tonne
The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...
s, and has a hole about in diameter near the top.
History and legend
Archaeologists believe that the stone was originally a door to a
megalithic tomb
A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea.
The ...
. The hole may have permitted the offering of food or other objects to the dead.
The 14th-century
Book of Ballymote
The ''Book of Ballymote'' (, RIA MS 23 P 12, 275 foll.), was written in 1390 or 1391 in or near the town of Ballymote, now in County Sligo, but then in the tuath of Corann.
Production and history
This book was compiled towards the end of the ...
offers a story where
Niall of the Nine Hostages
Niall ''NoÃgÃallach'' (; Old Irish "having nine hostages"), or Niall of the Nine Hostages, was a legendary, semi-historical Irish king who was the ancestor of the Uà Néill dynasties that dominated Ireland from the 6th to the 10th centuries. ...
ties Eochaid, son of
Énnae Cennsalach mac Labhradh (a 5th-century
King of Leinster
The kings of Leinster ( ga, RÃ LaighÃn), ruled from the establishment of Kingdom of Leinster, Leinster during the Irish Iron Age, until the 17th century Early Modern Ireland. According to Gaelic traditional history, laid out in works such as th ...
) to the Aghade Holed Stone and sends nine men to kill him:
Up to the 18th century it was common for sick children to be passed through the hole, in the belief that this would cure them.
References
{{Reflist
National Monuments in County Carlow