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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
Coordinates
52.01396, -10.01041
SMR number
KE071-170----

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

In mountain heath and cutaway bog (165m OD), on a gentle NE-facing slope, c. 7.5m to E of rock art site (KE071-169----). Good views of Behy river valley to NE with Seefin and Droum Mountains in background. A very rough and fractured, sandstone rock outcrop (dims. 2.75m NW-SE; 1.32m NE-SW; H 0.5m at NE) which is subrectangular in plan. It has an irregular-shaped decorated surface (dims. 1.25m ESE-WNW; 0.55m NNW-SSE) with a N and a S-facing aspect. The decorative elements are very weathered and difficult to decipher due to natural rock striations. The elements upon the S-facing aspect consist of a cup-and-one-ring motif (total dims. 20cm N-S; c. 12cm E-W) having a cupmark (diam. 7cm; D 7mm) and a sub-oval ring (Wth 1.5cm; D 3-4mm) at SE edge of decorated surface; Three cupmarks adjacent to E and a picked linear groove (L 23cm; Wth 1.5cm; D 2-3mm) is c. 2cm to NW; a single cupmark is adjacent to W of groove. A trapezoidal ring (total dims. 17cm NW-SE; 11cm NE-SW) encloses a pair of cupmarks within: small cupmark (diam. 3cm; D 4mm) and large cupmark (diam. 5cm; D 4mm). An isolated cupmark is located at the western end of the decorated surface. An additional cup-and-one ring motif (total dims. 16cm N-S; 12cm E-W) with a possible eroded cupmark was noted (in a different light), upon the N-facing aspect of this stone. Area of sphagnum moss around base of stone at SE.

Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly

Date of upload: 26 January 2018

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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