Tag: cup-markings

Urlar Burn (6), Aberfeldy, Perthshire

megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 82540 45022

Getting Here

Urlar Burn (6) stone

Take the A826 Crieff Road uphill for 275 yards then turn right up the Urlar Road.  It’s a long uphill walk from here, up the private road, through and past Urlar Farm and along the track (keeping to the west-side of the burn), past the impressive Urlar Burn (8) carving, until you eventually reach the bothy, 3¼ miles (5.2km) up from where you first turned off the A826.  Walk 70 yards past the bothy then into the heather on your left where a large couch-shaped boulder stands.  The carved rock is a couple of yards on the floor in front of you.

Archaeology & History

An unimpressive faint cup-marked stone consisting of between two and five shallow cups that are difficult to make out unless lighting conditions are good – and even then they’re troublesome!  It was first noted by George Currie (2009) how described it simply as: “a rock 2.0 x 1. x 0.2m between Urlar Burn and Hill Park track bears five cup marks.”  There are much more impressive carvings in this neck o’ the woods that you’ll want to see ahead of this one!

Folklore

Shallow cups: top-middle; centre-middle

Although there’s nothing specific about this stone, the burn to the side of the carving was haunted by an old urisk in times gone by: an elemental creature from Scottish fairy lore who inhabited lonely streams and waterfalls. The urisk of Urlar Burn was known as Brunaidh an Easain (his brother, Peallaidh, of greater renown, lived in the gorge of Moness close to Aberfeldy) and was likely to have lived further downstream from here.  They are associated in some places with cup-marked stones, where offerings of milk were given to placate them.

References:

  1. Currie, George, “Perth and Kinross: Dull: Urlar Burn (3),” in Discovery & Excavation Scotland (new series), volume 10, 2009.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Balrobbie, Killicrankie, Perthshire

megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 90884 62571

Getting Here

The Balrobbie Stone

Roughly halfway between Blair Atholl and Pitlochry on the B8079 road is the village of Killiecrankie where, at the junction, you should take the road which leads you over the River Garry.  Crossing the river, follow the minor road swerving to the right and after nearly 200 yards bear left up the very minor road.  200 yards up there’s a hairpin bend; keep going up for about another 150 yards then walk into the overgrown grassland on your right where, just above an old hawthorn, a single notable rock protrudes.  Y’ can’t really miss it!

Archaeology & History

Some of the cups visible in poor light

On my visit here recently, the day was grey and overcast which, in tandem with there being a reasonably decent cover of mosses living on the stone, prevented me from seeing the complete design of this petroglyph.  I was thankful that it’s not an overly impressive one, so couldn’t be too disappointed.  It was was rediscovered in recent years by George Currie (2005) on one of his many forays, which, in his typically evocative language, he described as: “Rock, 1.5 x 0.9 x 0.7m, a few metres W of the Tenandry road; 24 cups, largest 50 x 18mm.”  Most of the cup-marks are a good depth and easy to see when you’re stood next to it.  Sadly my photos didn’t manage to capture them too well.

A notable hut circle can be seen a short distance away up the slope, barely visible in the summertime.  The carving may have been executed by the people living there.  This is the only recorded cup-marked stone anywhere near here which, as rock art junkies will tell you, is unusual.  Where there’s one, others tend to be living close by.  Happy hunting!

References:

  1. Currie, George, “Perth and Kinross: Balrobbie,” in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, volume 6 (New Series) 2005.

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. 

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Ledard Burn (2), Kinlochard, Aberfoyle, Perthshire

megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 459 035 (?) 

Archaeology & History

In Miss Maitland’s (1935) article on the Ledard Stone carving, she also made a brief mention of “another cup-marked stone (that) lies on the edge of the burn, beyond the one described, above Loch Ard.”  She gave no further information about this second stone.  It remains lost and sounds to be only a short distance further uphill and on the west-side of the burn.  If any local explorers are able to find this carving please let us know and, if possible, add some info and photos of it on our Facebook page. (the grid-reference for this site profile is an approximation)

References:

  1. Maitland, Mrs, “Cup Marked Stones”, in The Scottish Country Woman, 1935.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Ledard Burn (1), Kinlochard, Aberfoyle, Perthshire

megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 458 033

Also Known as:

  1. Ledard Stone

Archaeology & History

Ledard Stone, 1935

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 left
Ledard 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:

  1. Maitland, Mrs, “Cup Marked Stones”, in The Scottish Country Woman, 1935.
  2. Royal Commission Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Stirling District, Central Region, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1979.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Balimeanach (4), Loch Earn, Comrie, Perthshire

megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 63874 23005

Getting Here

Balimeanach (4) site

Go along the minor single-track road on the south-side of Loch Earn (between Edinample and the ugly Lochearn Leisure Park) and roughly halfway along the loch, there’s rough parking near Ardvorlich House (the starting spot for walking up Ben Vorlich).  Walk east past the track to Ardvorlich, staying on the lochside road, for about 400 yards and then go up the dirt-track on your right.  Walk up here for about 200 yards and, before you reach the trees, notice a small gate in the walling above you on your right, about 70 yards up the slope. Go through here and bear immediately left, up to the large oak on the large dome of rock.  From the oak, with your back to the wall, take about 10 steps forward.  You’re here!

Archaeology & History

Deep cups & faint rings

The singular short reference to this impressive design was by George Currie (2011) who told us that it “bears at least 17 cup marks, three of which have single rings.”  But there are in fact six of them with rings, possibly seven—with a few additional cup-marks scattered across the wider rock surface.  It’s quite impressive, although on our visit here the daylight was gray and so the photos I have of the site do not do it justice.  The sun popped out a couple of times, but only for a few minutes and we weren’t able to take advantage of it quickly enough.

The distinctive section of this petroglyph are the deep cup-marks on its northern side: fourteen of them, three of which have faded shallow rings around them—or rather, uneven oval-shaped surroundings. The cup-marks have obviously been worked and re-worked over the centuries, whereas the rings were given less repetitive attention, for whatever reason.  This is a pattern found at a great number of cup-and-ring stones across the country.

Shallow cups, faint rings
Another angle of deep cups

From this cluster of deep cups, walk two or three yards south onto the slightly lower smooth rock surface, where we find a much less pronounced scatter of several shallow cup-marks—may be five, may be six—but three of them have faint rings around them. They were difficult to see on our visit here due to the poor light.  There’s what may be another incomplete cup-and-ring another two or three yards further along on the same rock face: a cup, certainly; the faint ring, perhaps.  We need to revisit this in better light.

The rock surface continues for quite some distance all round here in the shape of a large dome, much of it covered in vegetation of varying depths.  There are openings showing the bare rock and, at several other spots there are several other cup-marks, although none are as deep as the ones we’ve just described.  On the edge of one piece, about three yards north of the deep cups, a couple of worn cup-marks are near the edge of one rise; two others are clearly notable a yard or so WNW of the deep cups; whilst there are several other single cups near and not-so-near of the main design. It all requires a lot more work before we see the entire picture.

It’s a gorgeous site: silent with the feel of winds and waters and the scree of buzzards touching the senses: elements that, at some petroglyphs, had mythic relevance…

References:

  1. Currie, George, “Comrie: Balimeanach (BC 2), Cup-marked Rock”, in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, New series – volume 12, 2011.

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. 

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Laggan Farm, Anwoth, Kirkcudbrightshire

megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone (removed):  OS Grid Reference – NX 546 530

Archaeology & History

A.E. Truckell’s 1961 photo (TGDNHAS, 1961)

A small multiple-ringed archetypal design consisting of a central cup-mark with seven consecutive rings emerging from it, with a second outlying, incomplete cup-and-double-ring that nearly touches the outer edge of the seven-rings, was found by a Mr Sproat “in the bed of a shallow stream on Laggan farm” in 1960.  The design, as the old photo (right) shows, is very well preserved, suggesting that it cannot have been in the stream for too long, as the erosion on the carving isn’t in anyway excessive.  In all likelihood it originally came from a nearby prehistoric tomb: of which, there are several upstream from the farm.

Described by A.E. Truckell (1961) as “a particularly fine example”, the carving is on a particularly small and thin piece of stone, measuring 18 inch by 8 inch amd just 2 inches thick, with one edge of it snapped-off. It’s obviously no longer in situ and, I presume, is still resting somewhere in the Kirkcudbright museum.

References:

  1. Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Galloway and the Isle of Man, Blandford: Poole 1979.
  2. Morris, Ronald W.B. & Bailey, Douglas C., “The Cup-and-Ring Marks and Similar Sculptures of Southwestern Scotland: A Survey,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 98, 1967.
  3. Morris, Ronald W.B., “The Cup-and-Ring Marks and Similar Sculptures of South-West Scotland,” in Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society, volume 14, 1967.
  4. Truckell, A.E., “A Group of Separate Cup-and-Ring-Marked Slabs in the Cairnholy-Auchinlarie District,” in Transactions Galloway & Dumfriesshire Natural History & Antiquarian Society, volume 40, 1961.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Connachan (8), Crieff, Perthshire

megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 88110 27552

Getting Here

Connachan (8) stone

Along the A822 road from the Gilmerton junction on the outskirts of Crieff, heading up towards the Sma’ Glen, after literally 1¾ miles (2.8km) on the right-side of the road you need to follow the route to reach the Connachan rock art cluster by walking up the dirt-track leading up past Connachan Farm. Walk past the carving of Connachan (2) and up the track past Connachan (4), then onto the level ground and walk right to the low-lying ruined Connachan cairn.  From here, look up the gentle slope to the fence.  A small-ish stone protrudes out 40 yards away.  Head straight for it!

Archaeology & History

Close-up of line of cups

You’ll check this out when you’re doing your tour of this petroglyph cluster and sit here to admire the view.  It’s the last of the small bunch of carvings, on level ground, close to the denuded cairns.  It consists of just eight cup-marks, all of which are carved close to the edge of the stone on its upper sloping surface; although this doesn’t tally with Margaret Stewart’s (1967) description of any of the carvings hereby. There’s nowt much more to be said about it to be honest; apart from saying how it’s highly likely that other carvings remain hidden, undiscovered, not far from this stone along the edge of these hills.

References:

  1. Stewart, Margaret E.C., “Connachan, Crieff – Cup Marks and Hut Circle,” in Discovery & Excavation, Scotland, 1967.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Allt Coire Phadairlidh (1), Fearnan, Perthshire

megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 69279 42814

Getting Here

Allt Coire Phadairlidh stone

Along the A827 Loch Tay road, halfway between Fearnan and Lawers just beyond the forestry, a track goes up into the fields across from Feadan house (big shed above you in field).  Careful, or you’ll miss it.  Go up here and head all the way up the steep winding track for 700 yards (as the crow flies) until, where the land starts levelling out, you hit the long straight line of old walling.  Go over it and walk to your right (northeast) for a few hundred yards until it bears sharp left (NW), keep walking along it for another 45 yards and, where the fence turns down to the water, just keeping walking up the slope to the scatter of rocks. Look around!

Archaeology & History

Looking down at the cups

When you consider there are multiple-ringed carvings close by on the same geological ridge as this carving, there’s little wonder this fella hardly gets any attention: the design here is nothing special compared to its close neighbours.  That aside: on this small flat surface we have six or seven simple cup-marks; most of them quite small, with the largest of the lot having what looks like a small carved arc around one side of it—although I couldn’t make my mind up one way or the other to be honest.  A few more visits might prove more conclusive.

Folklore

The stream at the side of this carving and others nearby—the Allt Coire Phadairlidh, or Padderlie’s Burn—was the haunt of an urisk, who gave his name to the waters.  He lived a little further up on the knoll.  Several other carvings are just below here.  Urisks were plentiful in this area.  They are variously described as demonic creatures, referred to by Alexander Carmichael as “a monster, half human half goat, with abnormally long hair, long teeth and long claws.” (teeth aside, that sounds like me! 🙂 ) They mainly live by lonely waterfalls and a small beautiful fall is very close by.  They are associated in some places with cup-marked stones, where offerings of milk were made to placate them.  In truth, these nature spirits seem to be folk remnants of solitary shaman figures cast into the edges of hills.  A local lady who lived in this area said she’d met an urisk near here and he was anything but the fearful creatures they are made out to be…

References:

  1. Currie, George, “Kenmore: Allt Coire Phadairlaidh (AP1): Cup-Marked Rock,” in Discovery & Excavtion Scotland, vol. 9 (new series), 2008.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Torran, Ford, Kilmartin, Argyll

megalithix

Standing Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NM 87901 04877

Getting Here

The big man o’ Torran

On the A816 road, a mile-and-a-bit north of Kilmartin, take the small road (east) to Ford—passing the Creagantairbh stone on your right, then a bit further on the Auchinellan stone on your left.  Go through Ford village, making sure to stick to the road that goes along the north side of Loch Awe — as if you’re heading to Dalavich.  Just fractionally over a mile out of Ford village, just where the road begins to swerve into a large bend, there’s a small left-turn that takes you to some houses.  Just 60-70 yards along this little road, take the trivial little path on your right that takes you straight to a piece of manicured scrubland.  If you walk into it, and bear left, you’ll see what you’re looking for.  It’s unmissable!

Archaeology & History

When I first visited here in the 1990s, a farm building stood by this huge standing stone and there were no other houses nearby.  How things change—but thankfully our old sentinel stone is still living here.

Site shown on 1875 map

Romilly Allen’s 1880 sketch

It was highlighted by the Ordnance Survey lads on their early map of the area, and visited a few years later by the great petroglyphic pioneer J. Romilly Allen. (1880)  Standing eleven feet tall and more than four feet across at the base, Allen noticed that, about four feet above ground-level, someone had carved an old cross onto the northeast face of the stone (you can just make it out in the attached photos).  It had obviously been carved many centuries ago, by a wandering christian no doubt—although it was incomplete and never finished.  Perhaps the person who carved it was chased away by local folk, who would have obviously and rightly seen such an act as outright vandalism.  The cross was deemed by Ian Fisher (2001) and the Royal Commission (1992) to be medieval in nature.  Apparently there’s another, much fainter cross that was first mentioned by Marion Campbell etched on the other side of the stone, but in all the times I came here I was never able to make it out.

Old faint cross carving

Small person, big stone!

But even further back in time someone had carved a cup-marking on the stone—and the cross was etched onto the same spot, enclosing the cup-mark.  When I lived nearby, I made a sketch (long since lost) of what seemed to be two other faint cup-marks at one end of the extended arms of the cross, but on our recent visit here these were very hard to make out.  When Ron Morris (1981) mentioned the stone in his survey, he mentioned its proximity to other cup-and-ring carvings immediately to the southeast and a hillock thereby, wondering whether there was “an astronomical complex” going on here.  I doubt it—but I like the idea!

But it’s the size of the stone that’s most impressive here and keeps up with the tradition of similar megaliths in and around the Kilmartin area.  Check the place out when you’re hunting the other stones nearby.  You won’t be disappointed!

Folklore

Local tradition ascribed this great stone as marking the grave of an ancient warrior.  The full folk tale seems to have been lost.

References:

  1. Allen, J. Romilly, “Note on a Standing Stone near Ford, Argyllshire,” in Proceedings Society Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 14, 1880.
  2. Campbell, Marion, Mid Argyll: An Archaeological Guide, Dolphin: Glenrothes 1984.
  3. Campbell, Marion & Sandeman, M., “Mid Argyll: An Archaeological Survey,” in Proceedings Society Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 95, 1964.
  4. Christison, D., “On the Standing Stones and Cup-Marked Rocks, etc. in the Valley of the Add and some Neighbouring Districts of Argyle,” in Proceedings Society Antiquaries, volume 38, 1904.
  5. Fisher, Ian, Early Medieval Sculpture in the West Highlands and Islands, RCAHMS: Edinburgh 2001.
  6. Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Southern Scotland, BAR: Oxford 1981.
  7. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Argyll – Volume 6: Mid-Argyll and Cowal, HMSO: Edinburgh 1988.
  8. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Argyll – Volume 7: Mid-Argyll and Cowal: Medieval and Later Monuments, HMSO: Edinburgh 1992.
  9. Ruggles, Clive, Megalithic Astronomy, BAR: Oxford 1984.
  10. Swarbrick, Olaf, A Gazetteer of Prehistoric Standing Stones in Great Britain, BAR: Oxford 2012.

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. 

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Beadnell Caravan Park, Beadnell, Northumberland

megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone (lost):  OS Grid Reference – NU 2299 2989

Archaeology & History

Tait’s 1971 sketch of the carving

When the Beadnell Caravan Park was being constructed in 1970, in cutting into the Earth the workmen destroyed a couple of prehistoric tombs—but not before one of them (the northernmost one of the two) was thankfully excavated.  It was looked at by John Tait (1971), who described the covering cairn as measuring “nineteen feet in diameter and four feet high”.  Beneath it, within a cist that had been modified at two very different periods in time, were a large number of human remains that had been deposited over equally extended periods, suggesting it was a place of considerable importance to either one family lineage or the tribal lineage (unless it was just a dumping spot for any old Tom, Dick and Harry!).  Outside of the cist itself, but within the rocky mass of the cairn, this cup-marked stone was found (illustrated).  It had already been moved by the workmen before Tait came to excavate it, so he was unable to ascertain its precise position in the tomb.  Carved into a piece of sandstone were a number of odd-sized cup-marks, smaller than usual.  Tait wrote:

“It measures 38cm by 36cm and bears 29 small cup-marks and one slightly sinuous duct leading into what may be part of an earlier and larger cup. It also seems probable that additional cups  were added in antiquity, since some are distinctly more shallow than others and, in one instance, two cups impinge upon one another. The stone had been broken in antiquity and may have come from a larger inscribed slab, as is perhaps the case with some other “portable” stones of burials or cairns and other monuments of the second this nature.”

It is thought that the carving was laid back in the ground whence it was found.

References:

  1. Beckensall, Stan, Prehistoric Rock Motifs of Northumberland – volume 1, Abbey Press: Hexham 1991.
  2. Beckensall, Stan, Prehistoric Rock Art in Northumberland, Tempus: Stroud 2001.
  3. Tait, J. & Jobey,G., “Romano-British burials at Beadnell, Northumberland,” in Archaeologia Aeliana (4th series), volume 49, 1971.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian