Rock art (present location) in Unknown Townland

Found c. 1886 on 'the Ponsonby estate (which centred on Inchiquin castle) in the neighbourhood of Youghal' (Shee 1968, 150). Stone (0.96m x 0.7m; T0.3m) with decorative motifs picked on principal surface. Small cupmark with nine concentric circles; two short arcs of tenth circle on upper left and on right; right radial line in 2 o'clock position, runs through circles and projects beyond outermost. Ten small cupmarks immediately above circles and partly running into them; partly enclosed in lightly picked circle which runs against outermost of concentric circles. Satellite cup and circle attached at upper left of main circles. Four or five irregular cupmarks and dots further left (Shee, ibid.). Stone now in National Museum of Ireland. For original location see CO067-055----. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 2: East and South Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1994). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 8 March 2016

Likely dating to the Neolithic or Bronze Age, this rock art may have held ritual or symbolic significance, possibly linked to local landscape features or ancestral beliefs. Cup-and-ring motifs are commonly associated with ceremonial or territorial markers in prehistoric Europe.