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The Hole Stone Standing Stone
 

County

Antrim

Coordinates

N 54° 44' 55.5"   W 006° 04' 20.7"

Nearest town

Ballyclare

Grid Ref.

J 24094 90675

Map No.

14

Elevation a.s.l. (m)

166

Date of visit

Saturday 13 September 2003

GPS Accuracy (m)

3
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The rocky outcrop in the field seen from the road.


We had some problems finding this stone, so we entered a shop and asked the owners for the directions, they gave us them but they were a little annoyed by the question, maybe because we didn't buy anything.
The standing stone is in a private field. The shop owners told us to ask for the permissions before entering, but no house or people were around, so we didn't know whom to ask, and got in all the same.
In an otherwise plain field there's a 4 metres tall (and 15 metres in diameter) rocky outcrop that might resemble Ayers Rock in a very much smaller scale, and atop the outcrop there's this standing stone that, as its name reveals, has a hole drilled through it 1 metre from the base.
The hole has a diameter of about 10 centimetres. It seems this stone has been standing up there for the last 4000 years, but I presume the hole is much more recent. According to some people, couple used to marry up there and during the ceremony they used to hold their hands through the hole and swear eternal love.
The hole, and the stone itself, is aligned east-northeast to west-southwest (30°-210°).

UPDATE: June 7th, 2017 - A new visit to the Ayers Rock-like rocky outcrop.
A convenient stepped access is present on the south side of the outcrop. From here it is possible to climb the rocky formation up to its flat top where a standing stone with a hole near its top is.
The standing stone has a reddish colour just like the outcrop where it stands on. It's top has a curved shape to the southeast.
The stone is 1.51 metres tall, 76 centimetres wide and 24 centimetres thick.
At about 97 centimetres from the ground is a man-made hole with an inner diameter of 6.5 centimetres. The main sides of the stone face northeast-southwest (60°-240°).
It seems that the hole in the stone was already used several hundreds years ago as a way to seal contracts, treaties or marriage vows.
Because the stone is Bronze Age old, the first uses of the site was probably for religious ceremonies.

The first 6 photos in this page are from the 2003 visit.


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