Rock art, Teeromoyle, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Rock art, Teeromoyle, Co. Kerry

On the lower slopes of Teeromoyle mountain in County Kerry, a sandstone boulder sits in rough mountain pasture at roughly 254 metres above sea level.

Its upper surface, not much larger than a coffee table, carries a series of markings that nobody has been able to fully explain in the several thousand years since they were made. The motifs are weathered and partly obscured by lichen, but they are still there, pressed into the stone by hands that understood something about this place that we no longer do.

The carvings belong to a tradition of prehistoric rock art found across Atlantic Europe, most commonly dated to the Neolithic or early Bronze Age. Cup-and-ring marks, the dominant form here, are exactly what they sound like: a shallow circular hollow, the cup, surrounded by one or more carved concentric rings. Their purpose remains genuinely unknown, though theories range from territorial markers to ritual or astronomical significance. On this boulder, the central motif measures about 17 centimetres across, with a cup six centimetres in diameter at its centre. A second, partial cup-and-ring sits just two centimetres to the north-west; its enclosing ring is unusual in that it does not follow the standard carved groove but presents instead as a small raised step or rim, a subtle variation that sets it apart from more typical examples. A single cupmark, a plain hollow without any surrounding ring, sits further to the north-west. The rock itself is smooth sandstone, fractured in places, with the decorated face oriented towards the south-east. A field boundary runs close to the north, and a stream passes not far beyond it.

The boulder sits on a steep south-facing slope with open views down towards the River Ferta valley. The site is in mountain pasture, which means the ground is rough and the approach on foot. Lichen cover makes the motifs harder to read in flat light; a low raking sun, particularly in the morning given the south-easterly aspect of the decorated surface, tends to throw the carvings into better relief.

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