This carving hasn’t seen the light of day, seemingly, since it was first reported by a local lady, a Miss Maitland in the 1930s—and who, it transpires, uncovered a number of petroglyphs in this neck of the woods. She found it on one of her many forays in the mountains hereby and took some old photos of it—although they’ve not reproduced too well for the sake of the site profile. (apologies)
Since Miss Maitland’s days, the hillside has been covered in forestry plantation, making it extremely difficult to locate the carving. However, due to the reasonably large size of the stone, it should still be there (smaller cup-and-ring stones have been damaged and destroyed by forestry over the years); and as we can see in the middle photo, a long thick vein of quartz runs roughly along the middle of the stone—an ingredient which may have been significant for the people who carved the stone. In her article in the Scottish Country Woman magazine, Miss Maitland told:
cup-marks, bottom leftLedard Stone
“On the hill directly behind Ledard, on the north side of Loch Ard, a little to the west of the burn and a little to the east of the first grouse-butt, exactly 700 feet above sea level, lies a large boulder. Ice has smoothed and fashioned it and on the worn surface may be seen twenty-one, or so, small round hollows, varying in size and depth. The pattern made is roughly diamond-shaped, pointing directly east and west. I saw them for the first time as the sun was setting on New Year’s Eve, 1932. It was a solemn moment, for as far as I know no one else had looked upon them with such joy, and even awe, for perhaps a thousand years!”
She may have been right. And by the sound of her words, she’d certainly caught the petroglyph bug!
Anyhow, the carving doesn’t appear to have been seen since then. A “cup-marked boulder” was noted in the Royal Commission’s (1979) listings, but with no further details. We assume it must be the same carving, although they never visited it. It’s also possible that they were referring to another lost cup-marked stone a short distance further up the hill from here. If any local explorers are able to re-locate the carving, please let us know, and maybe add some info and photos of it on our Facebook page.
References:
Maitland, Mrs, “Cup Marked Stones”, in The Scottish Country Woman, 1935.
Royal Commission Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Stirling District, Central Region, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1979.
