Rock art, Crannagh, Co. Carlow

The motifs are faint enough that you could stand beside the stone and see nothing at all. Cup and ring marks, as this type of carving is known, consist of a shallow circular depression, the cup, surrounded by one or more incised concentric rings. Their purpose is not agreed upon; theories range from territorial markers to astronomical references to ritual significance, but the honest answer is that nobody knows. What survives at Crannagh is a two-metre earthfast boulder, one barely rising above ground level, carrying at least five cup marks in various combinations: one cup enclosed by four rings with an outer diameter of 32 centimetres, another enclosed by a single ring, a third with two rings, and two further plain cup marks near the centre of the stone.

The setting adds a certain weight to the place. The boulder sits on the south-western slopes of Mount Leinster, in a valley whose views are largely closed off except to the south-west, where Brandon Hill, the Coppanagh Hills, and, on a clear day, the distant summit of Slievenamon in County Tipperary define the horizon. To the north-east, Mount Leinster itself closes the head of the valley; Knockroe sits to the south. The landscape is not open or panoramic in the usual sense. It is channelled, directed, the view funnelled in one particular direction. Whether that mattered to whoever carved the stone is unknown, but the geometry of the place is not easily dismissed. Immediately to the north of the carved boulder lies another of similar size, entirely unmarked, which raises its own quiet question about selection and intent.