Punchestown Standing Stone

By Paddy Behan

Punchestown Standing Stone is the largest of eight longstones in Co. Kildare. Made of granite it is nineteen and a half feet above ground and eleven feet in circumference. A quarter of a mile to the west is another longstone, at Craddockstown.

A story relates that an attempt was made by a Viscount of Allen to move the Punchestown Stone to his mansion by yoking fourteen pairs of oxen by chains to the boulder. This attempt to pull it from the ground caused it to lean at a dangerous angle. In 1934 it was decided to re-erect the stone vertically.