On an exposed hillside, with fields falling away towards the coast and cattle lowing in the distance, the Drombeg stone circle is superbly atmospheric. Its 17 stones, oriented towards the winter solstice sunset, once guarded the cremated bones of an adolescent. The 9m-diameter circle probably dates from the 5th century AD, and is a sophisticated Iron Age update of an earlier Bronze Age monument. To get here, take the signposted turn off the R597, approximately 4km west of Rosscarbery.
Just beyond the stones are the remains of a hut and an Iron Age cooking pit, known as a fulachta fiadh. Experiments have shown that its heated rocks would boil water and keep it hot for nearly three hours – long enough to cook meat.
