06/09/2026
beautiful texture on the carvings. Want to see more like this but in Kerry? Early bird tickets still on sale - https://events.humanitix.com/skellig-coast-archaeology-festival-2026/tickets
An example of prehistoric rock art (c. 4,500-5,000 years old) re-used in an old field wall in County Carlow, Ireland. This is just one of several carved stones in the area moved during field clearance over the past centuries. Some of these survive and are visible in their new locations, others have only been relocated after field walls were removed, or having literally fallen out as the walls continue to crumble.
This wonderful example is in the Rathgeran townland, which has two other known examples in the surrounding area, just south of Mount Leinster. We may never know this stone’s original location but it unlikely to have been moved very far. It has twelve cup marks on its outward face and the archaeological survey noted five have surrounding circles. Careful lighting of the stone, however, reveals at least nine have traces of enclosing rings, some of them extremely faded through weathering over the past 4-5,000 years.
