Rock art in Ballinloughan

The following description is derived from both the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986) and the 'Archaeological Survey of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1991). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 17 July 2007 Motifs occured on five separate rock outcrops within one field in this townland (CLAJ 1982, 111). The field contains two ridges running E-W. The southern ridge has only one example of rock art, a cup and ring motif consisting of a natural solution-hole forming the cup with a double circle enclosing it. The northern ridge had four separate examples of rock art, in a line extending WSW-ENE. Rock 2 had a complex motif, consisting of a cup mark enclosed by a gapped ring and adjoining this an irregular ring containing two small cup marks. Rock 3 had a complex series of grooves extending from a cup mark, partly obscured by natural rock fissures. Rock 4 had complex motifs consisting of a central cup mark enclosed by three pear-shaped rings, the inner two of which were gapped. A line extended from the central cup mark to a second cup mark outside the rings. There were also several small indentations in the rock face between the inner ring and central cupmark. To the N of this motif were a single cup mark and a cup and ring mark. Rock 5 had a single cup and ring motif. In 1984 the field was reclaimed and all of the rock art destroyed, except Rock 2 which is now housed in the National Museum and Rock 4 which is relocated along the stream to the E of the site. (CLAJ 1985, 72-7)