Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – NT 12907 69668
Also Known as:
- Tormain B (Allen 1882)
Archaeology & History
Found just a few strides away from the most impressive cup-and-ring stone at Tormain, is this quite un-impressive example and can easily be ignored. This simple cup-marked stone, first mentioned in Romilly Allen’s (1882) survey as “Stone B”,
“…lies 10 feet 3 inches to the north of stone A, and measures 4 feet by 2 feet 3 inches. It has a single cup cut on it.”
Despite this being included in archaeological surveys as prehistoric, I’m unsure regarding the archaic authenticity of this single cup-mark and wonder whether it was just the result of idle dabblings by one of the quarrymen here in the 19th century. The lack of erosion leads me to suspect this. It has the appearance of cup-marks that have been carved by students at several different places in Britain (South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Perthshire, Renfrewshire, etc) over the last forty years. I’m quite happy to be wrong though! When the Royal Commission (1929) survey mentioned “a single cup on one boulder,” this may have been the one they were referring to.
References:
- Allen, J. Romilly, “Notes on some Undescribed Stones with Cup Markings in Scotland,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries Scotland, volume 16, 1882.
- Royal Commission Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the Counties of Midlothian and West Lothian, HMSO: Edinburgh 1929.
© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian
