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Cup-and-ring-marked stone at Limavady is a Bronze Age rock art panel located in Co. Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The stone sits upon bedrock of the Argyll Group, ancient metamorphic strata of psammite, semipelite and pelite laid down during the Neoproterozoic era, lending the landscape its distinctive geological character. This monument belongs to a widespread Atlantic tradition of cup-and-ring petroglyphs, predominantly dating to the Bronze Age, though their precise ritual or domestic purpose remains debated among archaeologists.
The carved depressions—simple cups and concentric rings—represent a form of rock art encountered across Britain and Ireland, most commonly on exposed rock faces and boulders in upland or maritime zones. At Limavady, the monument stands as a tangible record of prehistoric artistic expression and territorial marking within the wider landscape of the Foyle valley and its surrounding settlements.
The stone is protected by the Historic Environment Division under reference 12221, ensuring its preservation as a significant element of Northern Ireland's Bronze Age heritage.
Cup-&-ring-marked stone is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 12221. View the official record →
Cup-and-ring-marked stone at Limavady is a Bronze Age rock art panel located in Co. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 12221.
Cup-&-ring-marked stone dates from the bronze age period, and is classified as a cup-&-ring-marked stone. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Cup-&-ring-marked stone is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Ni. The official designation reference is 12221.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Lough lohan. earthwork - crannog? (6 km), The white stone. standing stone - the white stone (7.4 km), Standing stone (7.7 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Cup-&-ring-marked stone's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Cup-&-ring-marked stone stands on Argyll Group, bedrock that formed in the Neoproterozoic. The rock here is psammite, semipelite and pelite.