Cup-Marked Stone (missing): OS Grid Reference – NJ 747 289
Archaeology & History
When James Ritchie’s (1918) wrote his lengthy essay on the cup-and-ring designs on the megaliths of Aberdeenshire, he mentioned one of the two known carvings that are in Loanhead of Daviot stone circle, but also mentioned one “in the wood, a short distance to the northwest of the circle.” It’s not been seen since he wrote about it. Ritchie described there being several rocks in the trees and, “on the upper surface of one of these, two plain cups are to be seen.” He told them to be “similar in size and appearance to those on the standing-stone” in the Loanhead stone circle a short distance below, but he thought there was no connection between the two sites. The carving is likely to be still there, beneath the undergrowth. It would be worthwhile seeking it out during the Winter and Spring months, before the vegetation returns.
Acknowledgements: Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland.
From Wooler High Street, walk east past Market Place and then down The Peth, across the A697 road, go over the river bridge and then left up the long dead straight Brewery Road. It bends left about half-a-mile up and just over 100 yards past the bend (just where another sharp bend in the road occurs), make sure to take the hidden footpath that runs into the shrubs. 700 yards along, the path levels-out as you hit the edge of the moor and you reach a ‘crossroads’ of paths. Bear left (NE) and walk another 800 yards (past a gate or 2) where you hit a small woodland; keep walking straight along the same path until you hit the next copse of trees on your left, and here walk sharp right, through the field for 300 yards (past some more trees), through the gate and another 100 yards or so through the next gate. Ahead of you is a covered rocky ridge with some gorse bushes. Look around!
Archaeology & History
…from another angle
We were fortunate on our first visit here. For, in spite of what several tomes and local guides have said of this carving—i.e., “the site is hard to find as it’s covered by gorse bushes”—local folk have cleared it and made it accessible and much easier to find. Thank fuck! For on the day we came here, in spite of considerable cloud cover, it was very hot and humid—and the last thing I needed was working to rummage through vegetation on a day like that!
It was certainly in a crappy state when the old rock art writer Maarten van Hoek (1982) came here: “covered by sheep dirt” as he called it! But he cleaned it up – and thankfully the tradition amongst the local folks continues.
Arc of cups & double-ringClose-up of main design
Cut into a rounded triangular-shaped flat rock are a series of multiple cup-and-ring designs, each with lines running in various directions to, or from, the central cup-mark. One of them—the smallest of the lot near the top-middle of the stone—is an incomplete double-ring, and all round the outer south- and western edge is a semi-circle of eight or nine cup-marks which, from my unconscious mind, brought about feelings of lunar phases defined by the cups as the Moon moved through the heavens—and then back on itself along the same movements through the skies. This simple ‘flash’, so to speak, was the unconscious of my youthful astronomical mind that brought it to the fore—and although ‘time’ in the neolithic was defined by the Moon (menstrual rites & all…), this impression, this ‘dreaming’ lacks consensus recognition and so, in the social Darwinian paradigm of modern archaeology, would be promptly put to bed! I still like the impression though; but it begs the question as to what mythos might underlie the rest of the design!
No such impression seems to have hit Maarten van Hoek (1982) upon his visit here. He described the carving thus:
van Hoek’s 1982 sketchBeckensall’s 1991 sektch
“7 cupmarks, 5 of them surrounded by rings. On the N part is a cup and 4 rings with a tail from the cup running to the NW. Through this carving runs a large crack in the rock. Almost touching its outer ring to the S is a small cup and 1 ring. Further E is a cup and 2 rings with a tail from the cup running SE. Near the end of this tail is a single cupmark.
On the S part is a more complex figure: it is a cup and 4 rings, the two outer rings broken off at the edge of the rock. The outer ring is gaped to the NW to enclose the outer ring of a cup and 2 rings. From the central cup of this cup and 2 rings runs a tail to the NW ending in another cupmark.”
On van Hoek’s visit, it was obviously a cloudy grey day, as there are some obvious ‘extras’ on the design that he missed (somehow missing the distinct arc of cups surrounding the double-ring for one thing!). Beckensall (1983) wrote about the carving a year later and picked-up on the omissions, and subsequently updated the details in his later (1991) tome—as we can see from their respective drawings (above); although he too missed a cup or two along the same arc. It’s easily done…
References:
Beckensall, Stan, The Prehistoric Carved Rocks of Northumberland, Frank Graham: Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1974.
Beckensall, Stan, Northumberland’s Prehistoric Rock Carvings – A Mystery Explained, Pendulum: Rothbury 1983.
Beckensall, Stan, Prehistoric Rock Motifs of Northumberland – volume 1, Abbey Press: Hexham 1991.
Beckensall, Stan, Prehistoric Rock Art in Northumberland, Tempus: Stroud 2001.
van Hoek, Maarten, The Carved Rocks near Wooler, privately printed: Oisterwijk 1982.
Cup-and-Ring Stone (lost): OS Grid Reference – NT 98491 28424
Archaeology & History
Highburn House C&R, 2015
This carving was rediscovered by rock art explorer Jan Broewer in September, 2007, a few hundred yards out of Wooler on the way to Akeld and Kirknewton, in the field on the right-hand side of the road, on the embankment just a few inches above the waters of the High Burn. On a recent visit here by Tom Cleland and I, despite us rummaging amidst the gorse and other herbage all along the edge of the waters, we were unable to locate the carving and presume that it has either been destroyed or re-housed in someone’s garden, living a more comfortable life. We certainly hope it’s the latter!
Sketch of the designHome of the lost carving
It’s design is nothing special: merely a singular, albeit scruffy cup-and-ring, with two other distinct pecked cup-marks and, possibly, a third shallow one just to the side of the cup-and-ring (but this is, in my opinion, highly suspect). The stone was obviously not in its original position when Jan first found it, and would seem to have come originally from the slope above the stream where a number of earthfast stones can be found. The numerous scratches across its surface shows that it’s been hit a few times by some (probably) metallic objects, or perhaps horses hooves, thus dislodging it from the slope above and rolling into the spot where Jan found it. Anyhow, we presently don’t know where it is or what’s become of it. Does anyone in Wooler know where it’s living?
Acknowledgements: Huge thanks to Pete Chattaway for use of his photo; and to Tom Cleland for helping the search party!
We took the B6348 road up east, from Wooler, turning left 2 miles up and crossing the small river bridge, going past Weetwood Hall where the road bends to the right and goes uphill for about a mile where, just before West Horton farm, there’s a a dirt-track on your left. 200 hards up, walk past the farm up and along the dead straight track for another 400 yards until you hit the field. Diagonally ahead of you (NW) less than 100 yards away, a small hillock rises in the field where a large metal animal feed-trough sits. Once there, the slope to your right (east) is where the stone lives. If you potter about you’ll find it.
Archaeology & History
On a visit to the impressive West Horton carvings on one of the searing hot days recently, Tom Cleland and I thought to check on an otherwise unimpressive petroglyph on a rocky rise of land before heading to the beauties 250 yards northwest of here. The covering soil around a scatter of earthfast rocks on this rise in the land had been eroded by cattle and on one of them we noted what seemed to be a distinct cup-marking. And, as happens when you look closer, a more expansive design came into being.
Main design from aboveFaint ring round the cup
On the east-sloping-face of this rock are between six and seven cup-marks, most of them quite distinct. The topmost of the cups has a faint incomplete ring round it which you can just make out in a couple of the photos. It seemed that there was another even fainter ring around one of the other cups, but on the day we visited this the heat was taking its toll of me and I could only stand a short time before we had to move, so we left without getting any good images of the other ring.
More recent cup-marks
It’s more then likely that other unrecorded carvings are hiding beneath the soil which, no doubt, the cattle will slowly help uncover as the years go by. 🙂 A little further up the slope from here, approaching the West Horton (1b) carving, a small oval-shaped rock has what looks like a single cup-mark on it and another, more recent marking at its side. This impression is likely due to an incision made by the metal legs of one of the animal feeders and is unlikely to be prehistoric.
In the fields immediately above the northernmost of the Castleton petroglyphs, there was, in bygone times, a prehistoric settlement, forgotten and cast even from folk memory until very recently, when aerial photography revealed the ghostly outline of its former existence. Similar in design, but somewhat smaller than the prehistoric Gallamuir enclosure a half-mile southwest of the Castleton carvings, this double-ringed oval enclosure—thought by archaeologists to have been defined all round with large wooden stakes, or palisaded—measures, from outer edge to outer edge, 65 yards (SE to NW) across its longer axis, by 55 yards (SW to NE). The gap between the trenches that define the inner and outer wooden ‘walls’ is between five and six yards apart all round it. The entrance to the enclosure seems to have been on its southeastern side—although an excavation is needed to be sure about this. Sadly, almost nothing can be seen of the site at ground level. An archaeo-dig would be a good idea. 🙂
Rough sketch of site-plan
‘Palisade enclosures’ tend to be neolithic in origin and were in use for many centuries, sweeping into the Bronze Age. I highlight this long period in time due to the proximity of the extensive and very ornate cup-and-ring carvings that start just 300 yards southwest of the settlement on the first rock outcrop that you meet. It’s a good one too! Petroglyphs were also created mainly during the neolithic and Bronze Age periods; and as the enclosure here is on the slight rise in the land overlooking the various small rocky ridges below, many of which are decorated in ornate cup-and-rings, it’s likely that some of the people who lived here were probably the people who did them…
Just over a half-mile (1km) south-west of the major rock art complex at Castleton, in the fields just east of Gallamuir Farm on the north side of the B9124 road, could once be seen a decent double-ringed enclosure, prehistoric in nature. At ground level today there is nothing to be seen as agricultural practices have ever so slowly eroded it away. It wasn’t in a good state when the dudes from Royal Commission (1963) had a look at it in October, 1951—although they did tell us that some faint remnants were discernible, but it was fading fast! They wrote:
“No traces of this structure can normally be seen on the surface, but at the date of visit, when the site was covered with wheat stubble, stretches of both ditches were clearly visible, as shown on the plan (below), by reason of the stronger growth of the stubble overlying them. The ditches are from 20ft to 30ft apart, and the enclosed area measures 300ft from ESE to WNW, by about 240ft transversely. Two narrow gaps in the inner ditch on the north and east arcs respectively, may represent original entrances.”
Outline sketch of the enclosureRoyal Commission plan
Nothing remains of it today apart from the shadow-marks of its former existence when looked down from above. The double embankment that constituted the enclosure initially suggested it to be Iron Age in nature, akin to the larger hillforts up and down the country, but the outline is more consistent of a standard settlement enclosure. As far as I’m aware, no excavations have taken place here, so we’re at a loss to know whether the people living here had anything to do with the rock art just across the fields at Castleton. If we found that it had a Bronze Age or neolithic date, a connection could be likely. But we may have to look at the enclosure immediately north of the Castleton complex to be more sure of our petroglyphic culprits….
References:
Lock, Gary & Ralston, Ian, An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland, Edinburgh University Press 2022.
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments Scotland, Stirling – volume 2, HMSO: Edinburgh 1963.
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Stirling District, Central Region, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1979.
To find this carving, follow the same directions as if you’re visiting the carving I’ve simply labelled Netherglenny. From here, walk up the slope (north) barely twenty yards and you’ll see the folds of another elongated piece of rock, similar in form to the one you’ve just been to.
I found this stone when rushing near the end of a red hot day and needed to get back under some shelter, so I didn’t get chance to highlight it as I usually do. Hence, the info and the photos of the carving aren’t impressive. But then, the design on the stone isn’t impressive either. I could discern just two distinct cup-marks: one above the deep elongated slit (vulva-esque) and the other below it. The cup-mark above it comes out clearly in the photos; but the other one is just about hidden in the shadows. There may be a third possible cupmark close to the less visible one. I’ll get some better photos when I’m next up there (he sez, hopefully…)
Shallow cup, top-middle
This carving lies very close indeed to an official site entry known simply as a ‘Nether Glenny’ carving (grid-ref NN 56130 01969), which became lost when forestation took effect here more than 30 years ago. However, the description given to that stone, of “at least six cups on the upper surface of the boulder” isn’t consistent with the marks on this rock. There are several other marks on this stone that may give the impression of them being cup-marks, but they’re entirely natural. Hopefully we can recover the lost ‘official’ stone on our next visit.
(The entry title of this site needs amending, as the entire Menteith rock art complex (more than a hundred carvings in little over a square mile) needs re-assessing and assembled under a singular umbrella. The scattering of place-names, sometimes erroneously, relating to the many so-called ‘Nether Glenny’ carvings [dozens of them], is confusing unless you know the area intimately—and most people don’t! So forgive the title I’ve given this minimalist cup-marked stone. It will be adjusted when we’ve been back and correctly mapped the others in this locale. If anyone wants to help out in this project, please get in touch.)
We took the route up from the hidden Braeval car-park, on the left-side of the road, ⅔-mile (1km) east of the Aberfoyle roundabout (on the edge of town). From here, walk up the dirt-track and bear left 350 yards up where the track splits. Walk up here for 1½ miles, through and beyond the ruined forest until, on the far side of the remaining trees (they may have been cut when you’re reading this) the path eventually brings you out into pasture. At this point, veer immediate right and follow the fence/wall on your right for literally ⅓-mile (0.54 km). This is boggy and uneven all the way as there’s no path here. You’ve gone up and over a ridge and, as you’re coming down the slope, hop back over the wall where there’s a gap and walk about 30-40 yards into the debris. You’re damn close!
Archaeology & History
Rough sketch of design
This is one of several previously unrecorded carvings I came across recently on the northwestern edge of the massive Ballochraggan rock art complex, on the slopes above the Lake of Menteith. I found it during one of the red-hot days we’ve just had —and, sadly, it had me running for home much quicker than usual! The heat beat me on this day (I’ve never been a lover of the sun), so hopefully you’ll forgive me if I missed a bit! 🙂 I was heading for the nearby Solar Stone carving near the bottom of the slope, when this partially-covered rock caught my eye—and I’m glad it did! For scattered along its long slender topmost surface, a number of the usual curious prehistoric symbols had been etched…
Western end of stonePetroglyph when wet!
The first thing I noticed were a scatter of cup-marks at the western end of the stone: four of them in a close-knit cluster (this section reminded me of an old favourite on Shipley Glen), with several others seemingly running in a curved line down the slightly sloping stone with, possibly, one or two others also streaming away below this same cluster. But the main feature, as the photos and sketches illustrate, is the cup with a large double-ring near the middle of the stone, above a long natural crack that almost cuts the stone in half.
On either side of the double-ring are quite separate single cup-and-rings with (roughly) equal layers of erosion—although the central cups were probably re-carved, so to speak, many times over the centuries, as their erosion level is considerably less than that of the rings. This is a feature found at countless carvings across Britain and suggests regular “re-use” or rather re-animating the design on a regular basis. A faint half-ring can be seen round one of the smaller cups near the bottom of the carving. And a peculiar feature near the middle of the design is a simple ‘ring’ that was started but never finished (perhaps?), with no cup-mark in the centre. This is a feature found on quite a few Perthshire carvings, with some of the shallow ‘rings’ being nearly 12-inches across in some instances. Most odd!
Main double cup&ringLooking down at the design
Several of the single cup-marks on here appear to have started life as natural pock-marks in the stone, which would have made carving the design a little easier than just starting from scratch! And, about 10 yards below this carving, a small sloping rock has a distinct eroded ‘bowl’ on it, about six inches across and several inches deep and is perhaps relevant to this carving in a pragmatic sense (mulching colours, herbs, etc). These ‘bowls’—be they natural or enhanced—are much-overlooked features and their existence needs to be taken into consideration when they’re found within a mass of cup-and-ring stones, such as found here, on the outskirts of olde Aberfoyle. Check it out when you’re next up here…. and the cup-marked stone 20 yards further up the slope too. And lots of others!
Acknowledgements: Big thanks to Prof Hornby for getting us up here on a scorching day!
Just as you’re coming into Balnaguard village on the B898 road from the eastern side (as if you’ve come via the A9 from near Pitlochry), just where the road crosses a small burn (stream), take the first farm-track on your right and walk down to the end where it meets the field. Here, walk to your left left and you’ll see a gate that takes you into the field. You should have already noticed the standing stone before you even open the gate! It’s about 100 yards in front of you. You can’t really miss it.
Archaeology & History
Clach na Croiche
Standing alone in this field a short distance south of the River Tay is this fine old standing stone, nearly seven feet high, from whose locale we gaze west to the opening of the Perthshire mountains—but in times gone by it wasn’t alone. Less than 10 yards east of the Clach na Croiche stood another seven-foot tall standing stone and, some six yards further east (and along the same axis) there may have stood another one, some 7½ feet high. This alignment ran east-west in line with the rising and setting of the sun at the equinoxes. (whether that was deliberate or not is another matter altogether) and was first noticed by the great antiquarian Fred Coles (1904) in one of his many megalithic ventures. He wondered “whether they (were) fallen Standing Stones, or the covers of cists” and when they were looked at by Margaret Stewart in 1971 she found that one of them laid beside “a shallow socket outlined with packing stones”—meaning that it had stood upright. The other stone didn’t seem as certain, although Stewart did report finding “a single cupmark…on the eastern side of the upper surface.” We’ve yet to see a photo of this carving.
The Clach na Croiche also has its own cup-markings, just above the bottom of the stone on its southern-face. Margaret Stewart described them as being “strung out irregularly across the face.” Sounds about right! Sadly, somehow, I didn’t get any photos of these when I last visited, but will grab some the next time I’m there.
Looking to the westLooking to the northeast
In the fields either side of the stones, ancient tombs have been found. Around 1887, the Duke of Atholl dug under some of the stones in the field and found a “cup” or urn which Coles reported “was found in a cist in the haugh near Tom-na-Croiche.” Then, in 1969, the farmer John MacBeth was ploughing the field and unearthed another cist some 15 yards north-west of the present upright. The base of the cist was cobbled and whilst whilst the tomb itself was filled-in, the farmer moved the covering stone to the fence at the west-side of the field (NN 9455 5205). Also, on the eastern side of the field in 1971, Stewart reported finding what she thought were the remains of cremated bones that seemed to have been part of another prehistoric structure.
Fred Cole’s 1904 sketchLooking to the southeast
Nearly 250 yards to the west of the stone, in the adjacent field, a huge prehistoric cairn—known as the Sketewan Cairn—was uncovered and fully excavated in the late 1980s. It originally stood some four feet high and was nearly seventy feet across. Within the cairn complex, a small standing stone accompanied some cremations. Unfortunately this entire archaeological site has since been completely covered over. You wouldn’t even know it was there if you stood right next to it! But if you want to see Balnaguard’s remaining tombs, head for the Fairy Mound right in the heart of the village…
Dixon, John H., Pitlochry, Past and Present, L. Mackay: Pitlochry 1925.
Kennedy, James, Folklore and Reminiscences of Strathtay and Grandtully, Munro Press: Perth 1927.
Omand, Donald (ed.), The Perthshire Book, Birlinn: Edinburgh 1999.
Stevenson, J., “Prehistory,” in Omand’s The Perthshire Book, Edinburgh 1999.
Stewart, Margaret E.C., “Perthshire: Balnaguard”, in Discovery & Excavation in Scotland, 1971.
Swarbrick, Olaf, A Gazetteer of Prehistoric Standing Stones in Great Britain, BAR: Oxford 2012.
Yellowlees, Sonia, Cupmarked Stones in Strathtay, Scotland Magazine: Edinburgh 2004.
Acknowledgements: Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland.
Various ways to get here, but it’s probably easiest if you’re coming via Aberfeldy. From here, go over the river bridge to Castle Menzies and Weem, but turn right once you’ve crossed the bridge and follow the road parallel to the river for just over 3 miles (4.9km) where you’ll reach a tiny road on your left, going uphill. You can park the car 150 yards up, on your right – then walk uphill (don’t drive any further). Walk up the road for just over half-a-mile (0.95km) and take the right turn; go along here for 300 yards where the pond appears and keep walking along the same road for another 250 yards till you reach a cottage by a small crossroads. From here, walk up (left) for another 300 yards where, near the top of the field, a large boulder sits close to the fence. You’ve arrived!.
Archaeology & History
Drumchanachan carving
On the way back down from a bimble to the beautiful and haunted Loch Derculich, Naomi and I stumbled upon this large stone just off the track below Lurgan farmhouse and found there to be a number of cup-marks on its sloping upper surface. Naomi was really truly excited! 🙂
On its northwestern surface there’s is a distinct scattering of cup-marks: one in particular near the middle of the stone that’s been deepened in more recent times, as if it was ready to be blown-up and destroyed but, once realised it was a stone of the fairy folk, the operation was terminated and the stone left here to live! Thankfully…
Close-up of cupsDeep lines of cups
It’s a pretty basic design, consisting of at least eleven cup-marks, mainly running in a line upwards along its westernmost side, following the edge of a natural ridged contour. Of the two topmost cups, one of them may have a carved line running to it with a faint semi-circle then emerging from the line around the edge of the cup. But it’s faint—if it’s real—and the daylight was fading when we came here so this and any other design elements that may exist weren’t too easy to see. Hopefully I’ll get back up here pretty soon and see if there’s anything else hiding beneath the aged shadows.
It’s a wonderful arena above Edradynate, with countless other ancient sites peppered across the landscape hereby…
When James Ritchie’s (1918) wrote his lengthy essay on the cup-and-ring designs on the megaliths of Aberdeenshire, he mentioned one of the two known carvings that are in Loanhead of Daviot stone circle, but also mentioned one “in the wood, a short distance to the northwest of the circle.” It’s not been seen since he wrote about it. Ritchie described there being several rocks in the trees and, “on the upper surface of one of these, two plain cups are to be seen.” He told them to be “similar in size and appearance to those on the standing-stone” in the Loanhead stone circle a short distance below, but he thought there was no connection between the two sites. The carving is likely to be still there, beneath the undergrowth. It would be worthwhile seeking it out during the Winter and Spring months, before the vegetation returns.
