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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Rock art

Carrowreagh Or Craignacally, County Donegal, Ireland

The record

Townland
Carrowreagh Or Craignacally
County
Donegal
Country
Ireland
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
55.29553, -7.33726
SMR number
DG004-086----

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1841 "Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, located on a partly grass-covered, low irregular-shaped knoll of rock outcropping in the S half of Doagh Island, overlooking Trawbreaga Bay to S.
The rock art is located on a sheet of bedrock (c. 5m E–W; c. 4m N–S) straddling the top SE edge of the knoll; a steeply-sloping rock face defines the E edge of the exposed surface, and there is a cluster of upright boulders just beyond the W edge.
While the rock surface is relatively smooth, the bedrock sheet as a whole has a corrugated appearance, being naturally divided into several narrow sections by a series of parallel N–S creaks and folds. The N third, which coincides with the top of the knoll, is relatively flat; the centre and S part of the rock surface dips and slopes gently to S.
A cup-and-two-ring motif is evident in one of the middle sections on the level upper portion of the bedrock sheet. The central circular cup (diam. 0.07-0.08m; D 0.02m) is well defined, but the two concentric rings (overall diam. c. 0.3m) are very shallow and barely visible. The inner ring (diam. c. 0.15m) appears to be gapped at SE. In 2018 a radial groove was noted, extending from the central cupmark downslope to SSE towards a small, natural oblong hollow in the rock surface; this radial groove was not evident during an inspection in 2020. There are also a number of smaller, shallow, barely discernible cupmarks (diam. c. 0.05-0.07m): one is located 0.17m SE of the large cupmark, with two others further downslope to SE. Another cupmark (diam. c. 0.07m), with a rougher outline, is located 0.75m to WNW of the large cupmark. A number of possible radial grooves extend to N from this cupmark; they are slight and may simply be natural features of the rock.

Attached images:
DG004-086----_01.JPG Exposed bedrock at top SE edge of knoll, viewed from S
DG004-086----_02.JPG Bedrock sheet, viewed from W
DG004-086----_03.JPG Cup-and-two-ring motif, viewed from N
DG004-086----_04.JPG Cup-and-two-ring motif, viewed from N

Notified to the NMS by Aoibheann Lambe.

Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 11 March 2020

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
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