PREHISTORIC carvings have been identified for the first time on a stone circle at one of County Limerick’s most popular visitor attractions.

What has been described by the Office of Public Works as “a remarkable discovery of spectacular concentric circles and arcs” was made on the Grange stone circle at Lough Gur last week.

Leading Irish archaeological photographer Ken Williams, who specialises in photographing ancient stones, said that the recent spell of warm weather may have helped him discover the markings.

He hadn’t noticed them when he visited the site in early 2020 but during his visit last week, he saw that parts of one of the stones in the circle that were previously covered with moss were now exposed.

“It seems like this year the extreme heat has killed off a lot of the moss and revealed these carvings. To the naked eye, they would be very hard to spot until they were pointed out”, he explained.