The Gossan Stones are a short pair of stones situated on a ridge between Paddock Hill and Scarr Mountain above the Glenmacnass valley in the Wicklow Mountains. The name Gossan is thought to derive from ‘gossoon’ Hiberno-English slang for a young man which undoubtedly derives from the Irish ‘garsún’ and also from the French ‘garcon’, all meaning essentially the same thing. The stones are easy to miss being so small in stature but are picturesquely situated with a distance of 1.75 metres between them. They are aligned north-south. What makes them unusual is a couple of factors, namely the area they are in is not known for a wealth of prehistoric monuments. Secondly, as discovered by the archaeologist Christiaan Corlett, rather than being aligned with the rising sun on the spring and autumn equinox the stones actually act as portals or a frame for the sun as it rises in the east within the profile of the Devil’s Glen. Corlett also points out that northwest of the Gossan Stones a stream ruses up from the Devil’s Glen through the valley known as the Bellanagranna Brook which could be the rough Anglicisation of ‘Beál na Ghrian’, meaning ‘Mouth of the Sun’. The Gossan stones are an easy site to miss so I highly recommend logging the GPS details below prior to your visit.

GPS: 53.02736, -6.29281