CianMcLiam

This is another section of the outcrop, this time across the top surface which is very overgrown in parts and slopes into a field wall.

Vanishing fast under the turf

Looking roughly south-south west.

This is a section of the western face of the outcrop, there’s quite a collection of motifs here that are visible and more that don’t show up so clearly. The decoration continues up across the top of the outcrop, under the growth of mosses and grass.

This is one of the special panels, a spiral-like motif beside a rosette of cup and rings, and more cup and rings trailing off the frame.

This is the eastern face of the outcrop, virtually every surface on this face and across the top is carved, as well as large portions of the west face also.

With power lines badly cloned out in Potatoshop

Looking south west down the valley, with Knockroe and Brandon Hill in the background.

Looking out from the rear of the chamber with the entrance portals at the rear left

Last light of solstice on the floor of the chamber of Dowth South 21/12/07 (the beam is broken and split by some high trees in front of the entrance). Happy solstice 2007!

Right and Rear Recesses in Main Chamber

..and then I felt the hand of mother nature tap my shoulder and whisper into my ear: ‘nice lights fella, now try THIS!’. No digital fooling around, just some Nikon flashes and a fortuitous break in the coulds.

This is the ‘Clear Island Stone’, found on the island off the south coast of Cork then brought to the mainland and finally to it’s resting place in the Cork Museum. What a wonderul piece of carving work!

This nice design on one end of the stone has curious little ‘tails’ spiralling out from the outer ring.

Kitty, cup and rings.

What a queer looking piece of rock art, looks like an alien grub crawling through the undergrowth.

Camping out on Tara, Samhain 2007

Protestors erected a large tent on the ‘Banqueting Hall’ enclosure, inside of which there was food, song and mischief...

The Cattle Connection

I think this covers the entire carved surface, you can easily see how badly eroded they are.

The base of the stone seems to have been the main focus of the megalithic art, as you can see it’s now very badly eroded.

When visiting Carnbane West, you pass this stone standing near the hedge and now set in a concrete base. I had read it was carved but had not seen the carvings illustrated, along with some deep cup marks there are arcs, lines and other indistinct motifs.

This section of the panel features two interlinked cup and rings with two rings and what looks like co-joined minature single cup and rings