What is recorded here

Kealduff Upper holds two inscribed panels separated by a narrow sheep path in wet Kerry bog. The eastern slab carries cup-and-ring marks, pocked rectangles and a large double ring whose outer edge may join a square shape. The smaller rock to the east preserves a sub-rectangular ring, a cupmark, a curved radial line and two grooves that meet the ring like hands closing around a memory. Both surfaces are weathered, partly hidden by vegetation or lichen, yet their shapes remain distinct enough to trace.

Rock art identified and described by Aoibheann Lambe as; 'S of a stream, NE of the rock art (ITM 462164, 586529) a sheep path runs between 2 inscribed panels which are 1.6m apart. The panel to east, flush with ground level in wet boggy terrain, partly overlain with vegetation to N and E and waterlogged to S, measures 1.2m NS at its west end and 2.2m EW. The inscriptions, while weathered, are distinct with individual pockmarks identifiable and include an irregularly shaped cup-and-ring (D: cupmark 3cm, ring 12cm) at the far west of the panel. The panel has dispersed areas of pocking made with a fine point including 3 solidly pocked rectangles (c. 4cm x 2.5cm) one above and another two below the cup-and-ring as well as a cupmark on a slightly lower level to east. Midway along the upper part of the panel, an irregularly shaped cup-and-two rings (D: ring 34cm) with, on a part of the surface that is fractured, the outer ring possibly conjoined with a roughly square shaped ring. The inner ring encloses 1 clearly defined cupmark and 3 more heavily weathered (possible) cupmarks (D: 4cm). To E, a low-lying rock (possibly part of a rock outcrop) measuring c. 1m x 0.8m in plan, its near-level upper surface, c. 0.6m x 0.6m, is inscribed with a finely pocked sub-rectangular ring measuring 16cm NS x 18cm EW. The E part of the ring encloses a cupmark with radial line between 2 grooves, the groove at E and the radial line curving in parallel with the side of the ring at E. The radial line meets the ring at S while the grooves meet the ring at N. Above the ring to E, on a part of the rock’s surface where lichen obscures the faint motifs, are 2 sub-circular partial rings and grooves'. See attached photographs courtesy of Aoibheann Lambe Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien based on details provided by Aoibheann Lambe Date of upload: 7 October 2022

Likely dating to the Neolithic or Bronze Age, the rock art at Kealduff Upper may have held ritual or territorial significance, as was common with many inscribed stones in prehistoric Ireland. The positioning near a sheep path suggests it may have been part of a landscape used for both practical and symbolic purposes.

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