What is recorded here

Kealduff Upper holds a smooth sandstone boulder marked with intersecting grooves and pickmarks, sitting twenty-three metres from another rock art site on a NE-facing slope. The largest groove stretches forty-seven centimetres across the decorated surface while shorter lines branch north and south like a crude map of water flow. From this height the Behy river valley unfolds beneath the Seefin and Droum Mountains, suggesting the marker guided people along a visible ridge rather than hiding them in heath.

In rocky mountain heath (192m OD), amongst a rock scatter, on a NE-facing slope, c. 23m to NNW of rock art site (KE071-162----). Excellent views of Behy river valley to NE with Seefin and Droum Mountains in background. A smooth and fractured sandstone boulder (dims. 1.25m NE-SW; 0.82m NW-SE; H 0.5m at SW) which is subrectangular in plan. It has a subrectangular decorated surface (dims. 1.1m NE-SW; 0.8m NW-SE) with an ESE-facing aspect. The motifs consist of an arrangement of linear intersecting grooves. The largest groove (L 47cm; Wth 1.5cm; D 2-3mm) is orientated (long-axis ESE-WNW) across S side of decorated surface. A shorter groove (L 19cm) of similar dimensions extends (long-axis c. NNE-SSW) in a gently meandering fashion to S, from the longer groove. A shorter groove (L 3cm) extends (long-axis NNE-SSW) to NNE, from the longer groove. A curvilinear arrangement of pickmarks (L 11cm; long-axis NW-SE) is located at NW edge of decorated surface. Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly Date of upload: 24 January 2018

Likely dating to the Neolithic or Bronze Age, this rock art may have served a ritual or territorial function, possibly linked to landscape features such as the Behy river valley and surrounding mountains. Interpretations of its meaning remain speculative, though such sites often held symbolic or spiritual significance in prehistoric communities.

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