Rock art, Teeromoyle, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Rock art, Teeromoyle, Co. Kerry

On the lower slopes of Teeromoyle mountain in County Kerry, at roughly 256 metres above sea level, a sandstone boulder sits quietly in mountain heath.

It is not large, measuring about 1.3 metres east to west and just under three quarters of a metre north to south, but its decorated surface carries marks that were almost certainly made by human hands thousands of years ago. What draws attention is a cup-and-ring motif on the south-facing rectangular section of the rock's upper surface: a small central cupmark, roughly 4 centimetres across, enclosed by a carved rim, with the space between the two filled by a dense cluster of pickmarks. A short linear groove, about 7 centimetres long, extends from the motif to the east. The whole carved area measures only 20 by 30 centimetres, easily overlooked, and weathering has made the motifs difficult to trace.

Cup-and-ring marks are among the most widespread and least understood forms of prehistoric rock art found across Ireland and Britain. They consist of a carved hollow, the cup, surrounded by one or more concentric incised rings, and appear on both natural outcrops and boulders. Their purpose remains genuinely unknown, though they are generally associated with the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods. At Teeromoyle, the motifs are cut into a smooth and fractured sandstone surface, and a natural fracture runs across the north-eastern area of the carving, complicating any attempt to read the original design. A second rock art site lies approximately 11 metres to the south-west, suggesting this part of the hillside was, at some point, a place where people returned to mark stone.

The boulder sits on a steep south-facing slope amongst scattered rocks and outcrops, with open views across the Ferta River valley to the south and west. A field fence runs about 6 metres to the south, and a stream passes nearby to the north-west. The motifs are worn and require close inspection to make out clearly; low-angle light, particularly in the morning or late afternoon, can help bring shallow carvings like these into relief against the rock surface.

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