Celtic Stonework —by Míchealín Daugherty Stonework played an immense part in Celtic life and is reflected in Celtic mythology, in various modes, such as, the engraving on the rocks at Newgrange and the engraving of the shafts and circles of the celtic cross. For the most part, Celtic stonework was representative of the sun and of the continuity of life. Some works, such as the Men-an-Tol in Cornwall, are outrightly representative of fertility as well. It is important to remember, however, that these stones were not just symbolic to the Celts. In the Celtic religion, everything in the natural world contains its own spirits. Thus, spiritual overtones are reflected in nature; and, each tree, body of water and rock was thought to possess its own divine force. Standing stones, engraved by the Celts, are enduring symbols from the megalithic age when the dolmens, cromlechs and menhirs were raised as sacred symbols of the living land. Dolmens or tablestones are the skeletal structures of Celtic burial monuments. Such monuments were usually covered with a capstone and earth (known as a barrow). The
Celts used The menhir (a Celtic term for long stone) is either rough-hewn or fine cut and anchored in the earth. These are the types of stones that people such ritualistic sites as Stonehenge, Avebury and Alban Arthuan. Menhirs vary in size but have been found to measure over 60 feet in length. A bank or ditch usually surrounded the circular henges to distinguish them, and they usually contained more than one entrance. Cromlech is derived from crom, which means "bent" and llech, which means "flagstone". The term is now virtually obsolete in archaeology, but is still sometimes used to specifically refer to dolmens that were arranged in circles for ritualistic practices; that is, cromlech has come to mean the actual circular placement of the stone.
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dolmens to construct chamber tombs for
their dead as well. These tombs consisted of standing rocks devised to form one or more chambers or
rooms in which the dead were buried. Some even contained halls or were
connected with other specific rooms, such as passage graves, where the dead
were thought to await final transport to the 
