What is recorded here

Two slabs lean against a field fence beneath dense furze bushes, hiding cup-and-ring marks carved before human memory. One slab was moved during modern land clearance, dragging ancient geometry into a living boundary. The third stone Cooke recorded has vanished entirely, leaving a gap in the local story. What remains is a small, stubborn archive: rings, grooves and cups cut into rock that has survived rivers, fields and forgetting.

Two slabs lie at the S side of a field fence, beneath a dense growth of furze bushes, in rough boggy land on the S side of Knocknamorrive hill, E of the Caragh river. Cooke recorded a third stone at this location but this cannot now be located. (2) (KE072-017001-) The decoration on this slab, which measures 1.3m .5m, is confined to one of its ends and is dominated by a cup-and-two penannular rings with a radial groove. This groove is intersected by a curved groove which joins a cup-and-ring and a cupmark with a short groove, enclosed in an arc. The above description is derived from A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan (compilers), 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University Press (1996), no. 359. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 1 August 2013 In rough, level pasture (80m OD), leaning up against S side of field boundary (long-axis NE-SW). Obscured by a large boulder which has been placed over the decorated surface. A linear groove could be seen which corresponds to that depicted upon an earlier survey drawing, at S end of decorated surface (O’Sullivan & Sheehan 1996, 106; Fig. 70c). According to the earlier survey drawing, this stone bears a pen-annular cup-and-two ring motif, having a radial groove extending from the cupmark at ESE; The radial groove extends beyond the cup-and-two ring motif where it is intersected at a right-angle by a curvilinear groove (ibid). A cup-and-ring motif, a partial cup-and-ring motif and several, relatively short intersecting linear grooves, are located adjacent to S. According to the SMR file and local information, this stone is ex-situ and was moved to the field boundary during land clearance in modern times. A relatively recent breach (Wth c. 4m) has been made in the boundary, adjacent to W of the rock art location. Rock art (KE072-017----) is located c. 0.6m to W. Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly Date of upload: 5 July 2017

Likely dating to the Neolithic or Bronze Age, the rock art at Shanacashel may have had ritual or territorial significance, common to such sites in the Irish landscape. No specific folklore is recorded for this location.

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