Kingsmountain Decorated Stone
Location: Kingsmountain, Co. Meath
Irish Name: Sliabh an Rí
Ordnance Survey map 42
National Grid Reference N 633 795
The Decorated Stone at Kingsmountain lies around 4 km from the Loughcrew Cairns on Carnbane East. Standing 2.5 metres high, it is thought to have been part of a megalithic tomb, possibly serving as a roof lintel.
The stone is located in a field approximately 40 metres from the end of a narrow lane. It is possible to drive along the lane, although it can become quite overgrown with brambles in places.
The decoration on the stone links it closely with the passage tomb tradition of the Loughcrew complex, where carved orthostats and kerbstones form part of a wider Neolithic landscape dating to around 3500 BC. Although no visible mound survives at Kingsmountain today, the stone may represent the remains of a lost monument, or it may have been moved from elsewhere in the surrounding landscape.
The bottom spiral is 40cm in diameter and is the largest and most defined spiral on the Kingsmountain stone
The site was recorded in the 19th century by the antiquarian Eugene Alfred Conwell (1836–1929), whose work at Loughcrew remains an important early account of the monuments in this landscape.
E.A. Conwell who visited King’s Mountain wrote in 1872, “On its present site up to a few years ago, stood a tumulus, which the proprietor of the field caused to be carried away for top-dressing; and in the centre of the mound this stone was found, covering in a chamber formed of smaller flagstones and filled with bones, all of which have disappeared, the covering stone alone excepted.”
The Kingsmountain Standing Stone is listed in the Archaeological Inventory of County Meath under the category 'Megalithic Tombs' as an Erect stone ornamented with passage-tomb art. Conwell recorded that this stone formerly covered a chamber filled with bones in the centre of a mound.
The night sky above the Kingsmountain Decorated Stone, photo by Ken Williams