What is recorded here

Clear cups and rings are carved into a smooth bedrock slab on Doagh Island, facing Trawbreaga Bay and the long Malin peninsula. Someone stood here in a time before written records, marking the stone where the sea light struck and the land tilted upward. The markings are worn now, partly hidden by field stones and debris, but the cups still hold their shape. They are not decoration for a room or a gift for a person who left a name. They are a claim made with a tool, a cup cut through rock, a ring drawn around it, and a view kept alive long after the hand that made them disappeared.

In the NW corner of a pasture field, on elevated ground on the NE edge of Doagh Island. The location has excellent views N and E over Trawbreaga Bay, with the long stretch of Malin peninsula beyond; to W ground rises gradually in a series of small hills and rocky peaks; higher hills and mountainous peaks form a dramatic distant backdrop at SW. Rock art is visible on one of a cluster of bedrock boulders protrude from a low grassy rise, now partly obscured by piles of loose field clearance stones and woody debris. The NW edge of this bedrock slab (c. 2.3m NE-SW; c. 1m NW-SE) rises c. 0.25m above ground level and slopes down gently to SE where it dips beneath the ground surface. The exposed decorated surface (c. 1.4m E-SW; c. 0.65m NW-SE) is at the SW end of the stone, and is relatively smooth and fine-textured. It bears two cup-and-ring motifs, rather weathered and indistinct in parts. A thin natural linear fissure, which extends the full width of the surface on a NW-SE axis, crosses both motifs. One motif is at the W edge of the stone and consists of a cup (diam. 8cm) enclosed by a ring (diam. c. 23cm) which is clearly defined on the NW arc at the very edge of the stone, but indistinct on the SE arc. A broad depression on the NE side and a narrower shallow depression at SW may be part of a second outer ring. The second motif is c. 0.2m to SE. It consists of a cup (diam. 7cm) enclosed by a ring (diam. c. 23cm) which is clearest on the NE arc. Again, there is a faint suggestion of a possible second, outer ring. Another possible example of rock art (DG004-089002-) is located 2.8m to SE, and more rock art (DG004-088001-; DG004-088001-) is located 70m to NE in the same field. Attached images: DG004-089001-_01 DG004-089001-_02 DG004-089001-_03 Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 20 January 2023

Likely dating to the Neolithic or Bronze Age, the rock art at Fegart may have held ritual or territorial significance, possibly linked to landscape orientation or seafaring activities given its strategic coastal position. No specific folklore is recorded for the site.

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