Rock art, Ballykean, Co. Wicklow

Co. Wicklow |

Settlement Sites

Rock art, Ballykean, Co. Wicklow

In the townland of Ballykean in County Wicklow there may, or may not, still exist a small peaked stone bearing three shallow, indistinct cup marks on its eastern face.

The uncertainty is the point. Cup marks are among the most enigmatic survivals of prehistoric activity in Ireland, simple circular depressions ground or pecked into rock whose precise purpose remains debated, and this particular example occupies an even more ambiguous position: it was recorded once, more than a century ago, and has not been reliably seen since.

The stone was described in 1884 by Kinahan, who catalogued it as stone G in a survey of the area, noting its modest dimensions and the faint character of the carving. That a Victorian-era fieldworker thought it worth recording at all suggests it was at least legible in his time. When the site was revisited in 1990 using the location Kinahan himself had indicated, the stone could not be found. It may have been moved, buried, broken up, or simply misidentified in the original description. It is also possible that it remains exactly where Kinahan left it, waiting for someone to look in the right place at the right moment.

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