Rock art, Neesha, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On a south-east-facing spur of Macklaun Mountain in County Kerry, at around 258 metres above sea level, a rectangular sandstone boulder carries a small panel of prehistoric marks that have survived millennia of mountain weather in the open heath.
The boulder itself is just over two metres in its longest dimension, and the carved surface, which faces north-east, measures roughly 60 by 90 centimetres. Within that compact space, four distinct motifs are cut into the stone, each still clearly legible to anyone who finds them.
The carvings belong to a tradition usually dated to the Bronze Age, when communities across Atlantic Europe pecked abstract designs into exposed rock surfaces. The most common motifs are cup-marks, the simplest form, small hemispherical depressions, and cup-and-ring marks, where one or more concentric rings surround a central cup. On this boulder, the four motifs are arranged with some care. A large irregular ringmark, nearly 29 centimetres across and defined by a fine incised ring with a narrow gap at the north-east, sits centrally on the panel. To its east is a penannular ring of similar scale, open to the west, and that western opening is filled by a cup-and-ring motif with a cup roughly four and a half centimetres across. A smaller oval ringmark occupies the south-west of the panel. The stone also shows natural solution marks, the oval and linear hollows formed by chemical weathering of sandstone, which are worth distinguishing from the humanly worked forms. A separate flat stone immediately to the east carries what may be a further cupmark and some scattered pickmarks.
The boulder sits within a landscape that is itself part of the point. Looking south and south-east, the valley of the Meelagh River opens below; to the north-east the valley leads the eye towards Caragh Lake, and to the east-north-east rise the MacGillycuddy's Reeks, with Carrauntoohil, Ireland's highest peak, visible on a clear day. Whether this orientation was deliberate or incidental is impossible to say, but it is a feature common to many Irish rock art sites, which are frequently found on elevated ground with expansive views rather than tucked into sheltered or hidden spots.