What is recorded here

Kealduff Upper holds a fractured sandstone slab where cup-and-ring marks still emerge through moss and rain. A square cup sits at the centre of an open ring, joined by smaller cups and an L-shaped groove cut into the upper surface. The stone lies barely eighty centimetres across, tucked into rough pasture beside an old trackway, small enough to overlook and large enough to have demanded patience from whoever shaped it.

In rough pasture (145m OD), on an E-facing slope, c. 8m to NE of trackway (long-axis NW-SE). A very rough and fractured sandstone rock (dims. 2.50m NE-SW; 1.2m NW-SE; max. H 0.70m) having a rectangular shaped decorated surface (dims. 0.80m NE-SW; 0.60m NW-SE) bearing very weathered decorative elements primarily upon a flat upper surface, with one motif upon a S-facing aspect. The central area of the flat upper surface bears a partial cup-and-ring motif (overall dims. 20cm; ring Wth 1cm; D 2-3mm), whereby the ring is open NW->N->NE and SE->S->SW and having a cup (diam. 7cm; D 9mm) which is almost square in plan. Two cupmarks are located upon a higher, flat area of the stone surface to NW: This smaller cupmark (diam. 6cm; D 4mm) and the larger cupmark (diam. 8cm; D 7mm) are both shallow and smooth. An L-shaped groove (dims. L 15cm ENE-WSW; Wth 1-2cm; D 3mm) is adjacent to S of smaller cupmark. The S-facing aspect of this sandstone rock bears a cup-and-ring motif (overall diam. 14cm; cup diam. 6cm; D 5mm; ring Wth 1cm; D 2mm) having a very faint and barely traceable ring. Areas of moss and furze obscure rock surface to NE and along S margin. Rock art (KE071-032----) is c. 3m to S. Monument identified by A. Lambe (2014). Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly Date of upload: 5 July 2017

Likely dating to the Neolithic or Bronze Age, this rock art may represent symbolic or ritual markings associated with territorial boundaries or spiritual beliefs. Its placement near a trackway suggests it could have had a functional or ceremonial role in prehistoric land use.

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