What is recorded here

Kealduff Upper holds a triangular rock protruding from wet boggy ground in County Kerry, its SW face marked with cup-and-ring motifs and radial grooves cut through gapped rings. The largest design spans sixteen centimetres, a small central cup enclosed by two broken circles with a groove running toward the earth, while smaller marks cluster beside it and fading picks continue along the side. The rock sits east of a hidden circular field wall and joins a loose line of boulders, suggesting a place where people returned to mark the boundary between land, water and memory.

A low-lying rock in wet boggy ground whose triangular shaped upper surface (long axis 1.5m NW/SE, max width 1m E/W) protrudes from the bog, the SW extent of its upper surface and its SW facing side inscribed with rock art. The most clearly defined motif is a cup-and-ring variant (diam. 16cm) having a small central cupmark (diam. 1.5cm) enclosed by 2 rings which are gapped at SW - a radial groove (Wth 1cm) runs from the cup mark towards SW through the rings towards ground level. Abutting this motif at E, another cup-and-ring variant consists of a partially enclosed small cupmark (diam. 1cm) whose radial groove runs towards N, this motif conjoined with an curvilinear feature and some other probable cup-and-ring variants whose features are ill-defined. Picking also continues W of these motifs on the SW facing side of the rock. The rock art is E of a sub-circular shaped field which is enclosed by a wall (diam. c.70m - this feature not indicated on the historic maps), the panel forming part of a loose line of boulders running EW. A cupmarked boulder which is also partly overlain by bog is located 20m to NNE, a portion of rock protruding from the bog which bears a picked line and picking some 40m to NNE. Compiled by: Aoibheann Lambe Date of upload/revision: 14 March 2022

Likely dating to the Late Neolithic or Bronze Age, the rock art may have had ritual or territorial significance, possibly linked to landscape features or water-associated beliefs. Interpretations of the symbols remain speculative, but such inscriptions are often associated with symbolic navigation, ownership, or spiritual markers in prehistoric societies.

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