Rock art in Derreeny

Rock art identified and described by Ken Williams as a; 'Prominent earthfast boulder now set in low drystone wall of D shaped enclosure in rough rocky hill pasture, on the lower S-facing slopes of Knockaunanattin Mountain with commanding views S along the valley of the Kealduff River.  Large earthfast, angular boulder, now built into the straight side of a drystone D-shaped enclosure (dimensions c. 11m by 11m). This enclosure is not shown on the first edition 6 inch maps but is shown on the last edition. The top surface of the boulder (L. 1.9m, W. 1.45m) slopes steeply upwards from present ground level on the east to 1.2m high on the west side. The sloped top surface is split into two levels, the decoration is confined to the top ledge (L. 70cm, W. 1.45m) which is stepped down from the rest of the flat surface. The ledge itself steps down to the south onto another flat surface which previously had a covering of peat and stones but has become exposed in the past couple of years. Another area of decoration has thus been revealed in the newly exposed area.  The decoration consists of a collection of cup marks, cup and ring motifs and three irregular shapes which enclose two or three cup marks. From north to south, these can be described as follows: a ‘teardrop’ shaped groove forming an open loop which contains two small (D. 3cm) and one large (D. 5cm) cup mark. To the north of this is an irregular, roughly oval area of concentrated picking. Immediately next to these are two conjoined and roughly oval shapes, which have a straight line along the section at which they are joined. The larger of these contains two large (D. 6cm) and one small (D. 3cm) cup mark while the smaller oval shape contains one large (D. 5cm) and one small (D. 3cm) cup mark. Between these and the slight step down to the south are nine cupmark, four cup and single rings, a group of three closely spaced cup marks partially abutted by a concentric curved groove and an area of concentrated picking. Two of the single cup and rings are heavily picked inside the ring so that they have the appearance of a circular picked area with a central cup mark. In both cases, however, faint traces of the original outer ring can be discerned in the 3D photogrammetric model.  On the lower step of the top ledge, close to the south edge of the boulder, is a very well-preserved cup and single ring which has an annular concentric groove around it. This concentric groove continues to curve around a second cup mark immediately to the southwest but only completes about one half of a ring. There is an irregular area of picking above these motifs. Beside this, and separated by a natural fissure on the surface, is a roughly circular arrangement of six irregular spots of picking (D. 1-2cm) with a central area of loose picking. These all appear unfinished and may be an outlay for a ‘rosette’ motif or may be the first stage in laying out a cup and ring'.     Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien based on details provided by Ken Williams.