Ben Lawers – Page 2

Cragganester (10), Kenmore, Perthshire

01/09/202002/09/2020 megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 65796 38799

From Killin, take the A827 road to Kenmore. 6 miles along, on your right, is the track down to the Big Shed at Tombreck. Keep on the A827 for exactly ⅓-mile (0.53km), and opposite the driveway to Craggantoul is a small parking spot. A few yards on the road, over the burn, go thru the gate on your left. Follow the straight line of walling up for 7-800 yards and then walk to your right, into the field. About 300 yards into the overgrown meadowland you’ll see a rounded knoll with a very notable boulder on its crown. Y’ can’t really miss it!

Archaeology & History

It’s the setting of this carving that captures you way more than the carving itself—which is probably somewhat of a disappointment to most folk, unless you’re a petroglyph fanatic like myself.

Found relatively close to other carvings, this reasonably large boulder has, upon its roughly smooth top, just five simple cup-marks with varying degrees of weathering, from the very noticeable to the somewhat faint—hinting at the unlikely possibility that it might have been carved at different times. A possible sixth cup can be seen in certain daylight conditions on the southwest section of the stone. That’s it!

Tombreck (15), Kenmore, Perthshire

10/08/202011/08/2020 megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 64894 38308

Getting Here

Along the A827 Loch Tay road between Morenish and Lawers, take the track uphill where Carie farmhouse and Tombreck are either side of the road. Walk up this track 2-300 yards till you go through the gate just past the sheep-folds on your left. Ahead of you is a small grassy hillock on your right upon which you’ll find the unimpressive Tombreck-1 carving. Walk down the grassy-slope to the boggy stream and then up the rounded knoll on the other side, where you’ll find a stone that’s been split in two. You’re here!

Archaeology & History

This is another unrecorded carving, found amidst this already large petroglyphic cluster on August 9, 2020. Carved on a stone that’s been spilt in half, three simple cup-marks can be seen on the larger easternmost section, with the lowest of them having a possible short line running towards the cup on the right. It seems that the right-hand (north) side of the stone has also been cut, but there is no trace of this part of the stone on the ground. Additionally, there is the possibility that this stone once stood upright, as evidenced by its very worn rounded top and the larger bottom end of the stone being distinctly lower compared to the ground all round it. But this is speculative.

Although the rock is close to being on the top of a rounded knoll, giving good visibility both east and west for a few miles along the extensive grassy ridge (where many other petroglyphs exist), the grandeur of Loch Tay in the glen below is not and could never have been visible from this, or indeed many other carvings on this ridge. I mention this due to the fact that some students are positing that the existence of so many carvings along here may relate to some sort of deification of Loch Tay. But here and at many others along this ridge, the idea simply aint valid, unfortunately.

Allt a’ Choire Chireinich (06), Ben Lawers, Kenmore, Perthshire

13/04/202024/09/2025 megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 65309 39553

Getting Here

Follow the directions to reach the faint but impressive Allt a’ Choire Chireinich (04) petroglyph. Standing here, you’ll notice the large boulder that looks as if it’s fallen down the slope immediately to your left. You can’t really miss it.

Archaeology & History

Beneath the gorgeous excess of ancient lichens you can make out at least three cup-marks on the south-facing sloping rock-face in the top-half of the boulder. There may be some other faint cups on here, but due to the lichens they are very difficult to see, so I’m erring on the side of caution regarding their veracity. This is another one of those carvings likely to be interest only to the most ardent petroglyphic nuts amongst you.

Allt a’ Choire Chireinich (05), Ben Lawers, Kenmore, Perthshire

12/04/202024/09/2025 megalithix

Cup- Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 65305 39555

Getting Here

Follow the directions to reach the faint but impressive Allt a’ Choire Chireinich (04) petroglyph. Standing here, look straight down at the dried-up burn barely ten feet below you, where you’ll see a small sloping rock. That’s it!

Archaeology & History

Nothing much to see here apart from a single shallow cup-marking. Most likely of interest only to the most ardent petroglyphic explorer, but worth looking at when you’re visiting the more impressive carvings nearby.

Tombreck (10), Kenmore, Perthshire

14/12/201806/08/2019 megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 65042 37559

Getting Here

Tombreck’s cup-marked stone

Along the A827 north road around Loch Tay, between Killin and Kenmore, a few hundred yards east of Carie—and on the same side of the road—there’s a dirt-track down to the Tombreck community. Go into it and just past The Big Shed you’ll see the small caravan where the helpful and friendly Gabriela lives. The stone just in front of her caravan is the one you’re looking for!

Archaeology & History

Close-up of the cups

Although this cup-marked rock has been known about for sometime by local people, it is one of many that are not in the archaeological record. It’s nothing like as impressive as some of its petroglyphic neighbours on the slopes of Ben Lawers, as this simple carving comprises of two well-defined simple cup-marks, and another two that appear to have been worked slightly into natural cracks in the rock. These two remain incomplete. It’s nothing too special to look at and is, once again, only gonna be of interest to the petroglyphic purists amongst you.

Tombreck (08), Kenmore, Perthshire

14/12/201811/08/2020 megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 64795 38648

Getting Here

Along the A827 road between Killin and Kenmore, park at the entrance to the Tombreck track and cross the road, walking up the track heading up Ben Lawers. Pass the sheep pens, through the gate and keep going for a few hundred yards until you hit the old straight line of walling which runs off east into the pine trees a few hundred yards away. Walk along here, keeping to the south side, for less than 100 yards, watching out for a small stone on a small rise on a small hillock – and make sure your eyes are in good condition!

Archaeology & History

This is a seemingly unrecorded cup-marked stone, with very faint petroglyphic evidences just visible on the surface. Set within the wider surrounds of more recent enclosure walling, this is a small slightly raised female (rounded, smooth) stone, roughly three feet in diameter, which has at least five cup-markings on its surface—mainly near the middle of the stone. The rock itself is next to the western edge of a raised man-made feature, reminiscent of a collapsed denuded cairn or hut circle, which itself has not been archaeologically assessed. It is one of a number of petroglyphs in relative proximity to each other on the geological ridge above Loch Tay (not visible from here).

As you can see in the photos left and right, the cups are only truly visible when the stone has been wet. Initially I thought that this carving may have been one that was mentioned briefly in George Currie’s (2009) notes—at NN 64736 38647, 62 (57m) yards to the east—but it doesn’t seem to be the case as the grid reference he cited differs from this. There are going to be a number of other unrecorded carvings scattered about beneath the great shadow of Ben Lawers…

References:

Currie, George, “Cup-and-Ring Marked Rocks,” in Discovery & Excavation, Scotland, volume 10, 2009.

Acknowledgements: Huge thanks to Paul Hornby for the use of his photos in this site profile; and to Lisa Samson, for her landscape detective work at the site.

Tombreck (07), Ben Lawers, Kenmore, Perthshire

14/12/201806/08/2019 megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 65022 38285

Also Known as:

Canmore ID 238573

Getting Here

Tombreck 7 carving, beneath Ben Lawers

Take the A827 road that runs alongside Loch Tay between Killin and Kenmore, and about 6 miles from Killin watch out for the signposts for The Big Shed. Stop and walk NW up the track across the road from there, up toward Ben Lawers. Several hundred yards up, past the sheep-fold on the left-side of the track, a line of ruinous walling runs straight over the grasslands. Walk along here until it meets with the next walling that runs uphill. Look down into where the wall has collapsed. It’s under your nose!

Archaeology & History

This is a fascinating and pretty impressive example of a simple cup-marked stone. It’s the design that does it I suppose – similar in some ways to the well-known Idol Stone carving on my old playground of Ilkley Moor (that’s what this one reminded me of when I first clapped eyes on it)—but much better!

Lines of cups from above

The carving from the east

Its similarity lies in the series of parallel rows of cup-marks running very close together along the line of the low-lying rock, found at the base of some ancient walling that runs up the mountain for several hundred yards. Not only that, but the line of walling itself also has a parallel line of walling running adjacent for the same distance up the mountainside — more than half-a-mile from start to finish. This “parallel” feature of walling and cup-markings is a curious coincidence, perhaps. But certainly the linearity of the cup-marks was itself a very deliberate feature by the person who carved it, representing something ‘structural’, in whatever mythic form that may have been!

The carving in its walling

Of the rows of cups constituting this petroglyph, four of them run completely from one side of the stone to the other, rough north to south; with four other shorter rows running only halfway across the rock surface. Altogether there are perhaps seventy cups etched onto the rock. No rings or semi-circles of any form were visible in our visit here—although the skies were grey and overcast, making any decent visual analysis more difficult.

A damn good carving and well worth checking out by anyone into prehistoric rock art!

Allt a’ Choire Chireinich (04), Ben Lawers, Kenmore, Perthshire

11/12/201831/07/2025 megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 65306 39560

Also Known as:

Canmore ID 238575

Getting Here

The petroglyph & its associates

Along the A827 road between Killin and Kenmore, park-up at the Tombreck entrance and cross the road, taking the long track which eventually zigzags up the slope of Ben Lawers. Keep your eyes on the copse of trees a few hundred yards east that runs up the slopes. Head towards this, past the multiple-ringed Allt a’ Choire Chireinich stone, then AaCC 2 and AaCC3 carvings, then notice on the other side of the stream a couple of large boulders. That’s the spot!

Archaeology & History

This faint but intricately carved petroglyph is one in a cluster of three carvings, right next to each other—and it’s the best of the bunch by a long way. A single cup-marking is found on the flat stone beneath this one (AaCC5); whilst the large egg-shaped boulder in front has perhaps a half-dozen cups on it (AaCC6).

Alex Hale’s sketch of the carving

Faint remains of concentric rings

The large flat-topped boulder of AaCC4 however, possesses at least seventeen plain cup markings, along with twenty-four cup-and-rings, six cup-and-double-rings, three cup-and-three rings, three cup-and-four rings, and one cup-and-five rings! There are some carved lines that emerge from several of the cups, with all of the three cup-and-four rings having a carved pathway emerging from the central cup and going out of the concentric system. It’s quite a beauty! And it sits upon the ridge next to the clear drinking waters of the burn, gazing out over Loch Tay and the mountains all around in a quite beautiful landscape.

Immediately above and below the carvings are a number of settlement spots or shielings, known to have been used until recent centuries. They were quite ideal living quarters and some of the old folk here, in bygone days, would have known old customs and stories of this petroglyph.

References:

Hale, Alex, “Prehistoric Rock Carvings in Strathtay,” in Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal, 2009.
Yellowlees, Sonia, Cupmarked Stones in Strathtay, Scotland Magazine: Edinburgh 2004.

Acknowledgments: Huge thanks to Lisa Samson, Fraser Harrick and Paul Hornby for their help reaching this site and exploring still further. Let’s do it again sometime before I vanish forever up into the far North!

Allt a’ Choire Chireinich (03), Kenmore, Perthshire

11/12/201824/09/2025 megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 65249 39579

Getting Here

Allt a’ Choire Chireinich 03 Stone

Take the same directions to reach the large rounded Allt a’ Choire Chireinich 02 carving. Walk 65 yards (60m) northwest diagonally uphill to another large rounded stone of similar size. That’s the one!

Archaeology & History

A large cup-marked boulder, not previously recognised, was rediscovered on the afternoon of May 15, 2015. The great majority of the rock surface is covered in aged lichens, but at least three well-defined cup-markings were noted on the upper rounded surface of the stone: one near the middle of the stone; one near the centre-north; and another towards the top northwest section of the stone. The cups are more than an inch in diameter and eighth-of-an-inch deep. Others may be in evidence beneath the vegetation.

Allt a’ Choire Chireinich (02), Kenmore, Perthshire

11/12/201824/09/2025 megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 65218 39525

Also Known as:

Canmore ID 291477

Getting Here

Allt a’ Choire Chireinich 2 stone

Along the A827 road between Killin and Kenmore, park-up at the Tombreck entrance and cross the road, taking the long track which eventually zigzags up the slope of Ben Lawers. Keep your eyes on the copse of trees a few hundred yards east that runs up the slopes and when you are level with the top of it, walk along the line of walling that heads to it. Go past the top of the trees and the first big boulder you reach is the fella in question.

Archaeology & History

Adjacent to an ancient trackway that runs across the slopes of the mountain, this large glacial boulder sits proudly on the slopes calling out for attention — and attention it certainly received countless centuries ago, when local people (perhaps) decided to cut at least nine cup-markings onto the top of the rock.

Lichen-encrusted cups

The surface today is encrusted with olde lichens of colourful hues, beneath which may be other cup and ring carvings; but as I’m a great lover of such forgotten medicinal primers, I wasn’t about to scratch beneath their bodies to find out. This petroglyph is worth looking at when you’re exploring the other, more impressive carvings in this Allt a’ Choire Chireinich cluster.