What’s a bandle? A bandle was a linear unit of measurement used in Ireland, particularly for measuring linen. It measured around 2 feet (24 inches) but could vary from place to place, ranging between 20 and 30 inches. In Clare, the measurement was sometimes made by using seven fingers four times, but more often, a tool was used to perform the measurement. An entry in the Schools’ Folklore Collection (c.1937) describes how old people in Ballinderreen, Co. Galway, kept a stick in their homes called a bandle, which they used to measure flannel. But in some places, there was a communal tool for measuring cloth, as in the case of Noughaval – a village on the southern edge of the Burren lowlands in Co. Clare, where a lone stone pillar (pictured here) stands by the roadside. It is known variously as the market stone, bandle stone, bandle cross and market cross. Read more about the bandle stone and Noughaval’s lost settlement 👉 https://irishheritagenews.ie/bandle-stone-at-noughaval-clare-evidence-of-a-medieval-market-settlement/