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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Rock art

Letter West, County Kerry, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Rock art, Letter West, County Kerry, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Letter West
County
Kerry
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not Indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not Indicated
Coordinates
52.01421, -10.01340
SMR number
KE071-097----

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

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1753 map "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1753 · Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (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

This monument was initially identified as rock art by Aoibheann Lambe in 2016.  In mountain heath and blanket bog, on a NE-facing slope (174m OD), overlooking Behy River valley to NE and overlooked by mountains SE->W->NE. Loose stones and rock outcrop exposed across this area due to turf cutting and disused turf banks to NW and SE. A slightly rough and fractured, low profile, sandstone rock outcrop (dims. 0.50m N-S; 0.70m E-W; max. H 0.10m) having a triangular decorated surface (dims. 0.33m NE-SW; 0.15m NW-SE) which has an S-facing aspect. Rock art is very weathered and faint consisting of a cup-and-one ring motif (diam. 15cm) having a cupmark (diam. 7cm; D 11mm) and a ring (Wth 2.0cm; D 5mm), at S margin of stone; A tuft of green moss to S may obscure other potential motifs. Possible cupmark (diam. 2cm; D 5mm) is 12cm to SW. There are three parallel milky quartz veins (long-axis NW-SE) upon this aspect with one flanking either side of the cup-and-one ring motif and a third is further to E.

Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly

Date of upload: 3 March 2017

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
All Rock art in Kerry All County Kerry records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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