What is recorded here

Half a mile from the last road, a glacial boulder still lies beside the old rath, its shallow bowl waiting for the red pips that once marked an exile returning home. People carried suffering to that stone and laid it in the water, believing the lake would carry the pain away. The thin lines cutting across its surface may be weapon scores or forgotten symbols, but the bowl remains clear: a place where private despair was shared with the world.

On a steep slope on the NW shore of Lough Leane, 1.5m S of a rath (KE066-059001-). An irregularly shaped glacial erratic stone (diam. c. 1.7m E-W; H c. 0.7m) has a circular bowl-shaped hollow (diam. c. 0.35m; D 0.17m) on its upper surface, to the NE of the centre. Towards the centre of the stone are four thinly incised lines (L c. 0.3m), three extending NW-SE and the fourth E-W and crossing the SE end of one of the diagonal lines. Two crosses occur to the SW of the lines. These lines were recorded in the 1930s by Capt. D. B. O'Connell who suggested that they were the result of 'scores made from the sharpening of pointed metal weapons' (SMR file). Compiled by: Elizabeth Byrne, Ursula Egan and Sheila Ronan, Archaeological Survey Unit, University College, Cork. Date of upload: 31 January 2011

Likely dating to the Neolithic or Bronze Age, this standing stone may have had ritual or ceremonial significance, with the bowl-shaped hollow possibly used for offerings or symbolic purposes. Its location near a rath suggests a long-standing cultural landscape with possible links to later settlement.

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