The Hole Stone, reminiscent of former years when this area was home to the ancient Irish.


Holestone County Antrim

The Hole Stone sits on top of a bronze age megalith on top of a hill

This very interesting spectacle  which lies between Parkgate and Doagh is well worth a visit, to climb atop you will get a panoramic view of the lush land from which Irish Catholics were were brutalluy herded from in the 1600's, never to return, hundreds of unmarked graves of these native Irish no dobt lie within vision of the stone. 

A more recent story is that when a girl and boy got serious in their relationship they would go to the Hole Stone and the girl would put her hand through the hole in the stone and the boy would grasp it on the other side and this was their way of announcing their engagement. The hole would not be big enough for a man's hand to pass through.

By the 1830's the Holestone area became seen as a cesspit of society, it was written  that, ' there were the most disgusting shacks in which lived many planters, dung heaps and human sewage surrounded their shacks. That there were no less than 15 prostitutes and twice as many illegitimate children in the area. The people were dirty, drunken, slovenish and idle'.    The 'proprietor' of the shacks was a local farmer who loaned his name to the now disappeared "McGarrystown", it would appear his shacks were used as brothels as his tenants were described as 'women of ill-fame'