Cupmarked stone, Lissacaha, Co. Cork

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Stone Monuments

Cupmarked stone, Lissacaha, Co. Cork

On a rocky east-west ridge in County Cork, partially propped up by a smaller stone beneath it, a large slab carries two small circular depressions that have puzzled archaeologists for generations.

These are cupmarks, shallow bowl-shaped hollows ground or pecked into rock by prehistoric people, whose precise purpose remains genuinely unknown. Ritual offering, territorial marking, astronomical record, and simple craft practice have all been proposed over the years, and none has been conclusively ruled out. What makes the Lissacaha example quietly compelling is its modest scale and its particularity: two cups, not a grand ceremonial grouping, sitting on the sloping upper surface of a slab that tilts eastward because of the smaller stone wedged underneath it.

The slab itself is substantial, measuring roughly 2.25 metres north to south and 1.7 metres east to west, with a thickness of about 38 centimetres. Its eastern end is raised approximately 80 centimetres off the ground, while the northwest corner rests directly on bedrock. The two cupmarks are positioned on the north side of that upper sloping face. The larger of the two is about 7 centimetres across and 3.5 centimetres deep; the smaller measures roughly 3 centimetres in diameter and 2 centimetres deep. A separate roughly square stone, around half a metre across, lies on the ground to the northeast of the main slab. Whether it was ever connected to the larger piece, or arrived there independently, is not recorded. The ridge itself has only a thin covering of soil over the rock, which likely explains why the slab has survived on the surface rather than being absorbed into the landscape or disturbed by deep ploughing. The site sits in pasture, unenclosed and without obvious formal protection.

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