This page is all about prehistoric Irish rock art. Generally now thought to date to the Neolithic period – about 5,000 years ago – rock art is found on outcrops and boulders in the Irish countryside. The central motif is the cupmark, a semi-spherical indentation that has been picked or bashed out. Cupmarks can occur alone, with nothing in the way of a discernible pattern, or they may appear to be arranged in rough lines or semi-circles. A rock with cupmarks only is labelled a Cupmarked Stone in the National Monuments record. If the carvings include other elements it is labelled Rock Art – the other elements mostly often take the form of circles, single or concentric, and straight or curved lines, occasionally arranged in patterns. Nobody knows if the motifs carry a meaning, but they persist in time (carrying on well into the Bronze Age) and space – the rock art tradition is found all over Atlantic Europe, so it is obvious that they codified or expressed something important to our ancestors.
Rock Art and Winter Light at Derrynablaha
Rock Art – A Diversion to Wicklow
New Rock Art Find in West Cork
Imbolc – How Our Ancestors Welcomed Spring
Experimental Archaeology – Oliver’s Cupmark
Witches’ Marks and Lovelorn Shepherds: Inscribed Rock Art in a Remote Valley
Boyle’s Bealtaine: Rock Art, Ancient Festivals, and Archaeoastronomy
Rock Art: Returning to Derrynablaha
Revealing Rock Art: 150 Years of Images
Presenting Rock Art (Exhibition at the Schull Blue House Gallery)
Launched! (Opening of the Exhibition at the Cork Public Museum)
Rock Art Exhibition – at the Cork Public Museum!
Rock Art Ramblings… away from home!
Roaringwater Journal 