On a modest stone surface measuring roughly 1.2 metres long and 0.75 metres wide at Kildromalive in County Cork, shadows falling at an exaggerated angle revealed a series of small cup marks, each described as roughly finger-top sized, arranged in a simple geometric motif. Without that particular quality of light, the marks could easily have gone unnoticed indefinitely, their shallow forms blending into the general texture of the rock.

Cup marks are among the most widespread and least understood features of prehistoric rock art in Ireland. Carved or pecked into stone surfaces, sometimes in isolation and sometimes in more elaborate arrangements, they appear across the country without any firm consensus on their purpose or meaning. The Kildromalive stone is oriented on a northeast to southwest axis, a detail that may or may not be significant, and there are possible further depressions lower down the surface that have not yet been fully confirmed. What is known is that the stone was found relatively recently, and the person who discovered it made a quiet, personal request alongside the formal record: that it be known as the Catherine Stone, in remembrance of a great-grandmother named Catherine Walsh. It is an unusual footnote, a small act of private commemoration attached to something that predates any living memory by thousands of years.