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Rock art in Ballinvally

Rock art

What is recorded here

One chamber collapsed or rotted away, yet the rock endured. Someone set a heavy capstone over a narrow box, perhaps for a child or a beloved parent, then carved spiralling circles on the underside where no living person would ever see them. They trusted the hidden line to keep working long after the bones crumbled and the name disappeared.
The underside of the capstone (dims 1.25m x. 0.9m; T 0.1m) of a cist investigated in 1935 (Raftery 2011) has a double concentric circle and three motifs of triple concentric circles. The design is lightly picked, and the stone is now in NMI (1935: 542). (Shee 1972, 228-9; Shee Twohig et a. 2010, 21)
Likely dating to the Bronze Age, this rock art may represent symbolic or ritual motifs associated with celestial or spiritual beliefs. Concentric circles in such contexts are often linked to solar symbols or markers of significant astronomical events.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.

What survives
Recorded monument

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