Cloch á Phoill

About

Aghade Holed Stone or Cloghaphoill is a large holed stone and a national monument located two miles south of Tullow in Aghade, County Carlow, Ireland.

Description: The holed stone is granite, measures approximately 2.4 x 1.56 x 0.46 metres, weighs close to 5 tonnes, and has a hole about 32 centimetres (13 in) in diameter near the top. It is similar in size to the "Holestone" found in County Antrim at Doagh.

History and legend: Archaeologists believe that the stone was originally a door to a megalithic tomb. The hole may have permitted the offering of food or other objects to the dead. The 14th-century Book of Ballymote offers a story where Niall of the Nine Hostages ties Eochaid, son of Énnae Cennsalach mac Labhradh (a 5th-century King of Leinster) to the Aghade Holed Stone and sends nine men to kill him:

Then Niall went to Leinster upon a hosting, and he said that he would not go from them so long as he was alive, or until Echu were given him as a pledge and hostage. And this had to be done. So he was taken to Ath Fadat [Fád's ford] in Fothairt Fea on the bank of the Slaney, and was left there before Niall, with a chain around his neck, and the end of the chain through the...