What is recorded here

Canearagh holds a pentagonal sandstone boulder in boggy Kerry pasture, its south-east face marked by a cross-in-circle, a picked line and an irregular ring. The stone rises one metre above drooping turf, facing Droum Hill and the Dingle Peninsula, while rain wears its cracks and grass claims its edges. Whoever struck those marks did so on open ground, perhaps guiding another person through darkness or recording a promise the land could witness. The boulder still stands where visibility failed memory, waiting for a hand busy enough to touch what distance has already diminished.

On largely level ground in boulder strewn boggy pasture, this prominent sandstone boulder (c. 130m OD), is inscribed on the S end of its SE facing surface with a picked line, a cross-in-circle, an irregularly shaped picked ring with internal picking and a cluster of picking. The boulder, having a largely even surface defined by a network of N/S and E/W running cracks, is up to 1.1m high and pentagonal in plan, with sides of 2 –4m long, the longest side at E being 4m in length. The sides at W and E slope upwards towards each other creating a central ridge which is overlain by turf. The S and E sides are also partly overlain by turf, the rock surface immediately N of the motifs bleached where it has recently been deturfed. The cross-in-circle motif consists of a ring (diam. 0.16m, L 0.45m, wth 0.01m, D 2mm) which is irregularly shaped, coming to a point at WSW and having a line (L 0.05m) extending from its E end towards SE. The ring encloses a cross, which is slightly off-centre to SE. The cross is composed of two intersecting lines (wth 0.01m, D 2mm), the line running NE/SW (L 0.14m ) intersected 0.05m from the base of the ring at NE by the line running NW/SE (L 0.15m). 0.09m above the cross-in-circle, a picked line (L 0.32m, wth 0.01m, D 2mm) runs N/S. A second ringed motif, 0.11m downslope to NE from the cross-in-circle, is composed of a loosely picked oval ring (diam NW/SE 0.2m, NE/SW 0.14m, wth 0.01–0.02m, D 0.03m) bisected by an irregular line of picking (NW/SE 0.20m, wth 0.01–0.02m, D 0.03m) with an area of picking extending from midway along this line upwards to the ring. 0.20m W of this motif, an area of small pickmarks, c. .10 of which form a cluster (diam. c. 0.04m). Hollows between the two ringed motifs and to S are irregularly shaped and appear natural. Extensive views in all directions, the decorated surface sloping upwards to NW, there are views SW towards Coomsaharn and views NW beyond Droum Hill to the Dingle Peninsula. Depressions on the surface of a on a low-lying rock to SW, which include three straight grooves (L 0.10–0.20m) running roughly N/S, do not appear to be rock art. Identified as rock art by Aoibheann Lambe (2018). Compiled by Aoibheann Lambe Date of upload: 30 May 2018

Likely dating to the Early Christian period, the rock art may have had ritual or symbolic significance, possibly linked to early Christian or prehistoric traditions in the landscape. The cross-in-circle motif is commonly associated with Pictish or early Celtic symbolism.

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