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Bronze Age people built stone circles for their ceremonies. The number of stones in the circle was always an uneven number. One stone is set on its side at the south-west end of the circle and directly opposite this were the two largest stones. This is Drombeg stone circle in West Cork which is orientated on the mid-winter setting sun. Rituals involving the whole community were important in the Bronze Age. As this stone circle is deliberately orientated on the mid-winter sunset (solstice) this ceremony is probably to celebrate the longer days which are about to begin. The use of bronze made it possible to make musical instruments to play. Bronze Age people put up tall stones to mark important places. Sometimes they could mark the position of a burial or be used in ritual ceremonies. Some stones marked route ways and territory boundaries. These Bronze Age houses are constructed from timber beams with wattle-and-daub walls and thatched roofs made from reeds. These are circular although some were also rectangular. The circular houses would have been from 4 to 7 metres in diameter and supported by a central post. Agriculture continued much as it did in the Neolithic. More lowland forests were cleared to make farmland which was used for grazing or for growing cereal crops.

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