Rock Art, GORTBOY

Rock Art in Ireland, dating from the Bronze Age

This stone was located in a cultivated field on the lower N facing slopes of Knocknafreaghaun ridge, which extends from Macgillycuddy's Reeks. Extensive views may be had from the site to N and E. The stone was blasted in the 1950s, and fragments of it were used to line a well. Prior to this at least four feet (1.2m) had been broken off one of its ends (Hussey 1909, 103). It was an earthfast boulder of sandstone, approximately .75m high and at least 3.7m long. Its longer axis lay N-S and its decorated upper surface, which was covered in rock art motifs, sloped slightly upwards from both ends towards the centre (Cooke 1906, 9-10). These motifs consisted of at least forty-three cupmarks, twenty-one cup-and-rings, three cup-and-three rings and one cup-and-four rings. Some of the cupmarks were joined by radial grooves. The largest motif on the boulder was one foot (.3m) in diameter (O'Connell 1939b, 131). A number of other hollows may have been of natural origin (Hussey 1909, 104). See attached drawing of rock art taken from O'Sullivan and Sheehan 1996, Fig. 61 and photo Plate 29 The above description is derived from A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan (compilers), 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University Press (1996), no. 327. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. In gently undulating pastur

Period:
Bronze Age

Coordinates:
52.05°N, 9.69°W

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