What is recorded here

One small granite boulder in Carrickmines, County Dublin, carries at least nine cup-marks clustered in two loose arcs, three of them set along a natural fault line that could have made them without human hands. The road works pulled it from beneath ordinary ground, handing back a moment when someone marked stone perhaps to count, claim or remember. Whether ritual, play or practical measurement, the marks still insist that the place was watched and shaped long before the motorway gave it a new name.

This is one of three small boulders (DU026-145/147----) containing cup-marks which were discovered during archaeological investigations on the route of the South-Eastern Motorway (Clinton 2002, 87; 2004, 131). Rock B described by Dr Muriris O'Sullivan as a; 'Slightly rounded granite boulder (00E0525:1:6094). The surface into which the cupmarks are carved is convex in form with a fault line running along the centre of the face for approximately half its length. This face measures 0.60m x 0.48m. There are at least nine cupmarks to be seen on the face, generally clustered near the centre and arranged in two loose arcs, with an outlier. Three of them are formed along the fault line and these might conceivably be natural' (Breen 2012, 397). Breen, T. 2012 Report on the Findings of the Archaeological Excavations at Carrickmines, Co. Dublin - Carried out under licences 00E0525, 02E1532 and Ministerial Directions. M50 South-eastern Motorway Scheme 4 volumes. Prepared on behalf of V.J. Keely Ltd. for Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. See attached drawing of rock art taken from Breen 2012, Fig. 8.3.2 Compiled by: Geraldine Stout and Padraig Clancy. Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 4 January 2023

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