Saturday, September 14, 2013

GLANRASTEL petroglyphs

  from Neil Johnston at LAURAGH, County KERRY on 13.09.2013
 
Re: Petroglyphs at Tinure, county Louth.
 
Hi - nice stuff but there is another rockface - probably neolithic markings - description below. 
If you want to have a look, go here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu89EnSyeQU

Here is a description of the rock scribings from the Archaeological Inventory of Kerry.
 
Glanrastel Townland:
In rough hill pasture, on the SE-facing slope of Cummeenbaun Mountain. A
large upright slab (c. 8m x c. 5m x c. 1m) leans against a large roughly
cuboid-shaped boulder (L c. 12m E-W; Wth c. 4m N-S; H c. 3m) forming a
shelter that can be entered from either the E or W sides. The relatively
smooth vertical N face of the boulder is inscribed with clusters of
straight lines, which extend from 0.3 to 2.2m above ground level and cover
an area 5.8m x 1.9m. Most of the inscribed lines (L 0.04-0.15m) are
vertical and are frequently grouped by horizontal or diagonal lines scored
across them. The inscriptions are too numerous to count and appear to have
been created with V-shaped tools to depths of 1-4mm. This is known locally
as 'Pluais na Scríob' (the cave of the inscribing). (Grant 1999, 18-21)


Friday, July 26, 2013

DID IRISH MONKS REACH NORTH AMERICA ?


Richard Dupuis in Montréal, Canada, has sent me photos and a video of a granite boulder in the Parc des Rapides, close to Montréal and the St Lawrence river, which is engraved with a well-executed interlaced-quatrefoil design:


Click on the photo above
to read my essay on this very interesting find.




Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Ancient scratchings or recent plough-marks ?



This boulder is on the edge of a field at Ardganty (Longford).
Photo by Gavin Berkenheger.