Rock art, Drom, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On a boulder beside a quiet Kerry road, someone carved marks into stone thousands of years ago, and those marks are still there.
The rock, which stands roughly two metres high and appears to have once been a single large mass before splitting into about four parts, carries on its upper southern surface a collection of prehistoric rock art: cup-and-ring motifs, plain cupmarks, lines of picked stone, and a basin enclosed by a ring. Cup-and-ring carvings are among the most widespread forms of prehistoric rock art found across the Atlantic fringe of Europe, consisting of a small hollow, or cup, surrounded by one or more concentric carved rings, though their precise purpose or meaning remains unknown. The basin here adds a further variation, a deliberately hollowed depression similarly ringed, suggesting a degree of intention and perhaps repeated use in the carving.
The site sits on the western side of the road leading towards Neesha, in the Drom area of County Kerry. What makes it easy to miss is also what makes it worth seeking out under the right conditions: the carvings are not readily visible in flat light. The shallow relief of pecked and ground stone needs a raking, low-angle light to resolve properly, the kind that comes with early morning sun or an overcast day with directional brightness. The surrounding landscape offers something the carvers would also have known well, expansive views in every direction, with the Macgillycuddy's Reeks visible to the east and Macklaun to the south-west. Whether the location was chosen for that openness, or for something in the rock itself, is one of those questions the site quietly refuses to answer.