First documented by researcher M.A.M. Van Hoek during a comprehensive survey of Donegal’s rock art in 1987, this unassuming stone lies twenty metres southwest of another marked boulder known as DON 6. Its smooth upper surface displays five faint cupmarks; shallow, circular depressions carefully pecked into the stone thousands of years ago.

These cupmarks represent one of Ireland’s most enigmatic forms of prehistoric art. Found throughout the country but particularly concentrated in certain regions like Donegal, these simple yet deliberate markings were created by repeatedly striking the rock surface with stone tools, gradually forming bowl-shaped hollows. While their exact purpose remains a mystery, theories range from territorial markers and astronomical alignments to ritual or ceremonial uses. The weathered condition of the Carrowreagh boulder’s cupmarks, now barely visible after millennia of exposure to Donegal’s Atlantic weather, speaks to their considerable age.

Van Hoek’s systematic recording of sites like this one during the 1980s proved invaluable for understanding the distribution and variety of rock art across County Donegal. His work, published in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, documented numerous examples of these prehistoric markings that might otherwise have gone unnoticed or been lost to development and farming. Though easily overlooked by casual passersby, this small boulder and its faint cupmarks form part of a wider prehistoric landscape, offering a tangible connection to the people who lived, worked, and left their mark on this corner of Ireland thousands of years before written history began.