Cup-and-Ring Stone (lost): OS Grid Reference – Q 43 11
Archaeology & History
Judith Cuppage (1986) recounted that in the unpublished Minutes of the County Kerry Field Club for 1944, mention was made of a multiple-ringed petroglyph that hasn’t been seen since. It sounds quite impressive. She told how they’d,
“discovered a stone bearing a cup-and-gapped circle and a cup-and-3 gapped circles, “on the fence opposite the church” at Camp. Mortar still adhering to the stone as if it had been removed from a building.” Adding that, “neither its original provenance nor present whereabouts are known.”
Surely some good wise local still knows where this olde stone lives? In a garden perhaps…? It would be good to know that it’s still alive and well.
References:
Cuppage, Judith, Archaeological Survey of the Dingle Peninsula, Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne: Ballyferriter 1986.
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.
Less than a mile east of Callander on the main A84 road, nearly 300 yards just past the entrance into the Keltie Bridge caravan park, take the tiny road on your left (north) and barely 100 yards along where a small crossroads can be said to exist, go straight forward up the tiny single-track road ahead of you. Literally 0.62 miles, or 1km up, park on the right-side of the road where a small grassy track runs up the slope. From here, you need to keep walking up the road itself, bearing right just past the small bridge and, about 350 yards along you’ll see a notable rise in the field on your right less than 100 yards in. Head straight for it!
Archaeology & History
Despite this being a very basic simplistic design, I’m somewhat disappointed in myself as when we visited here, She was pouring with rain and for some reason or other I didn’t indulge myself in the soaking muddy ground and peel back the dung-infested turf to see the entire surface of this stone—and so, as a result, didn’t see the carving in its entirety. I’d have got soaked and been covered in shit! 🙂 But later this day we were visiting an antique centre and book-dealer straight afterwards, so for once I couldn’t play in the mud. Damn those neat and tidy folk!
It’s nowt special to look at in all honesty, but it’s in a good state of preservation as it was seemingly uncovered in pretty recent times beneath the curious large mass of loose stones right next to it. The stone mass gives the impression of it being a ruined cairn, but seems more likely to be a clearance cairn that was piled up, quite fortuitously, next to the cup-marked rock.
The carving consists of eight cup-marks (not all shown in these photos): five large and prominent, one not so prominent, and two that are small and very shallow. The more distinct cups would seem to have been worked and re-worked many times, obviously possessing a practical nature of some sort. As we can see in the photos, four of the larger cups stand out, whilst the small ones can be difficult to see. If there are any petroglyphic locals who fancy getting up here to clear the rest of the stone to see if there are more cup-marks underneath the soil, please let us know! Perhaps check it out when you’re looking at the nearby cairns at Ballachraggan and beyond.
References:
Main, Lorna & Page, R., “Easter Brackland, Stirling,” in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, volume 2, 2001.
Take the same direction as if you’re visiting the Ardoch (2) carving, starting from the Foulford golf course on the A822, roughly halfway between Gilmerton and the entrance to the Sma’ Glen. From here, take the track eastwards into the hills and literally ¾-mile along you reach the pylon; keep going along the same track for another 200 yards and on your left watch out for the track-cum-footpath going up the slope past Ardoch (2), onto the hilltop, then through the gate and down the path northeast for about ⅔-mile until you reach the burn. Keep going uphill for 80 yards and through the cronky gate, head 70 yards to your left to the large single rounded boulder.
Archaeology & History
Main scatter of cups
One of several petroglyphs in the area, this is the most notable in terms of its size. It rests just below the two Stroness hut circles which sit on the small level piece of ground nearly 100 yards further up the slope. A considerable scatter of cup-marks cover much of the upper surface of the boulder, some faint, some not so faint, with a number of them painted in a slight cover of lichens at the topmost section of the rock. The carving was first described somewhat blandly by George Currie (2004), who simply wrote:
“Large boulder, 2 x 2m, just W of hut circles; 16+ cups, 40–50 x 14–20mm.”
Faint line near the edgeCups among the lichens
It’s actually south of the hut circles; and there are certainly more than sixteen cup-marks, as the photos here indicate. At the time of my visit here recently, the sun was falling and was just below the level that permitted a perfect highlighting of the cup-marks, but there seemed to be at least 25 of them, scattered in no particular order over much of its upper surface. One curiosity that seemed apparent was a long carved line running along a long slender edge along on the southern side of the stone, from a large cup-mark down to near the southwestern edge, meeting another smaller cupmark. I not 100% certain that it’s actually been carved and it may just be one of Nature’s scratches along the rock, but it does seem to have that “man-made” stamp on it. Another visit in differing light will show us one way or the other.
References:
Currie, George, ‘Buchanty Hill (Fowlis Wester parish): Cup-marked Rocks’, in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, volume 5, 2004.
Cup-Marked Stone (missing): OS Grid Reference – ND 04321 56794
Archaeology & History
When Alastair MacLaren (1955) first excavated an Iron Age hut circle just above the northern edge of Loch Shurrery, he found, “from the tumble of the wall came a cup marked stone.” It emerged from southwestern side of this habitation site, on a small portable-sized stone, and consisted of just a single distinct cup-mark. When the site came to be re-examined many years later, it had gone. MacLaren was of the opinion that the stone had merely “served as core material and was of no other significance to the builders of the hut circle than just a handy bit of rubble to fill the space between the inner and outer faces.” This may have been the case; although it may have originally been carried from one of the many chambered cairns in the region.
Simply follow the same directions as if you’re going to the Allt Thorrisdail (1) petroglyph, and the large, roughly oval-shaped boulder just a few yards away is the one you’re after. You can’t miss it!
Archaeology & History
This large, earthfast, ovoid ball of rock has a series of cup-marks on three of its curvaceous faces, some of which seem to be natural, with a number of them “enhanced” by human hands at some time in the long long ago….
The main cluster of these cups can be found on its near-vertical western-face: an unusual feature in itself! There are several cups on its southern curve and, further round, low down on the east side of the rock we see a few more of them hiding away. These, too, seem to have been Nature’s handiwork, then enhanced by the hands of wo/men. The carving was described in Hew Morrison’s (1883) work as possessing two groups of cup-marks,
“similar to that on the neighbouring stone, one of eighteen small and one large cup, and another of eleven small marks. There is a solitary mark on the summit of this stone, and its southern face is marked by lines crossing each other, but without any apparent order or design.”
On its northern face we see a large oval hollow, an inch or so deep throughout, that has all the hallmarks of being a primitive face. There is a tradition of such a rock “face” carving somewhere close by, which seems to be lost—and this would seem to be culprit! If you visit the place, let us know what you think!
One feature that stands out at this site is the nearby pyramidal hill whch, I think, had some mythic relationship with the carvings. Impossible to prove, obviously, but the pyramid is such a dominant feature in this landscape that a relationship seems inevitable. I can only echo what I’ve said in the site profile for the adjacent carving here: tis a ritual place indeed – without any shadow of doubt. And I don’t say such things lightly. This place is truly superb!
References:
Mercer, R.J., Archaeological Field Survey in Northern Scotland 1976-1979, University of Edinburgh 1980.
Royal Commission on Ancient & Historical Monuments, Scotland, Second Report and Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the County of Sutherland. HMSO: Edinburgh 1911.
Acknowledgements: Huge thanks to Sarah MacLean for her company and landscape knowledge in visiting this and other nearby antiquarian sites. And to Aisha Domleo, for getting me into this neck o’ the woods in the first place….where’er She may be….
Cup-Marked Stone (removed): OS Grid Reference – NT 128 709
Archaeology & History
“M” marks the cupmark
A simple cup-marked stone was located inside a prehistoric burial cist that was discovered by quarry workmen in November 1897. The cist was subsequently excavated by Fred Coles (1898) who found therein (amongst other things) a simple cup-marked stone whose present locale is a box somewhere in Edinburgh’s National Museum (could someone send us a photo please?). The carving comprises simply of two complete cups and portion of a third, all close to each other on a small stone that was located on the south-side of the cist (see ‘M’ in the attached diagram). Coles described the carving thus:
“During the removal of (some) small stones, one, when the damp soil was rubbed of, showed two cup-marks, about 1½ inch wide each and ½ inch apart. The stone itself measures 5 inches by 4¾, and appears to be but a fragment of a larger one, one edge showing part of a third cup. The cups all show the tool-marks usually noticed on these mysterious sculpturings.”
Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 0844 4529
Also Known as:
Carving no.87 (Boughey & Vickerman)
Carving no.217 (Hedges)
Archaeology & History
This was one of two carvings reported by Stuart Feather (1964) that were very close to each other (see Bucking Hill 3), both of which consisted of simplistic designs but which, he thought, may once have been part of the same rock. Its precise whereabouts are not known (the grid-ref is an approximation). He wrote:
“On the southern slopes of Bucking Hill, a fine gritstone rock 5ft 6in by 4ft 6in by 1ft 6in high, has a very clear cup-mark 2in in diameter and ½in deep carved 8in from the straight eastern edge of the rock.”
Feather thought that the edge of the rock had been cut and quarried for use in the boundary wall to the east. He may have been right.
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Feather, Stuart, “Mid-Wharfedale Cup-and-Ring Markings – Nos 21 and 22: Bucking Hill, High Moor, Rombald’s Moor,” in Bradford Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 9:5, 1964.
Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
Cup-and-Ring Stone (lost): OS Grid Reference – SE 0828 4507
Also Known as:
Carving no.84 (Boughey & Vickerman)
Archaeology & History
Described by Boughey & Vickerman (2003) as being located somewhere “below Dirk Hill Sike” in the Rivock woods plantation, this is (or was) a “medium, upstanding rock lying NW-SE (with) one possible heavily weathered large cup-and-ring: cup 75mm diam. and ring 200mm diam.” However, the authors give no references to this site, nor images, or notes as to who rediscovered this stone. In their survey they also included one of the Bucking Hill carvings twice, giving the impression that there was more here than had previously been reported. These errors have subsequently been repeated elsewhere on-line. In saying this, there are a number of rocks scattered in this area which may have had carvings on them, but it’s been heavily forested and, recently, the trees have been felled and so many of them will have been damaged, turned over, or simply destroyed as a result of the forestry shennanigans.
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
On the north side of Cookridge, find Smithy Lane and go to the western-end, where it meets up with a dirt-track. Walk straight along here by the side of the cricket-pitch and then take the first turn left where you walk along the other edge of the cricket pitch. About 150 yards along, the track hits the woods; keep along here for about another 200 yards where you’ll find a small footpath on your left goes into the woods. Once you’re in in the trees, walk to your right, following the wall, for about 50 yards where you’ll see a large flat stone by the holly trees. That’s it!
Archaeology & History
Rediscovered by the Leeds historian Don Cole in the 1940s, this complex multi-period carving etched onto a flattened rock surface is an unusual outlier from the Rombalds Moor complex several miles to the west. At its heart, around the semi-natural deep “cups” near the middle of the southern side of the stone, is the oldest part of the carving comprising a very faint incomplete triple-ring design which, as we move around it, almost has the look of a Newgrange-lozenge form to it. But I’m unsure…
Very faint incomplete triple-ring at top-middleWaves & cups and rings
More obvious (apart from the deep “cups”), and the first thing you notice as you approach the stone, are the later and much more well-defined elements on the east side of the stone: a curious wave-form writhes from the edge of the rock across its smooth surface, beneath which we find a cup-and-ring and a number of single cup-marks, some enclosed inside a rounded box, with others sat between the curved carved line and the stone’s edge. The “rounded box” with its three cups at first seems to be on its own, but as the light changes you’ll notice a much fainter (possibly older) rectangular box attached to it; no cups are visible inside this.
A hundred yards due south in the same woodland you’ll find the Gab Woods (2) carving.
One interesting feature is the name of the woodland in which the stone resides. In Thomas Wright’s massive dialect work, Gab is a northern dialect word meaning “to talk”, or “idle chatter” (and variants thereof); this is echoed in Blakeborough’s (1911) Yorkshire survey; and Wilkinson’s (1924) local study tells simply it to be “idle talk…able to talk glibly and with much plausibility—a Town Hall Square orator for instance.” This makes the place as something akin to being “the woodland that talks”, “the chattering woods” or “the talking woodland”, etc. You can make up your own mind as to what this might mean… *
References:
Blakeborough, Richard, Wit, Character, Folklore and Customs of the North Riding of Yorkshire, W. Rapp: Saltburn 1911.
Wright, Joseph, English Dialect Dictionary – volume 2, Henry Frowde: London 1900.
Acknowledgements: Huge thanks must go to Peter Murphy for recovering this impressive carving from beneath the carpet of soil and vegetation, and so enabling it to be seen by others once more. Also big thanks to the usual culprit of James Elkington, as well as Sarah Walker and Sarah Jackson.
* a Scottish dialect variant of gab relates to the mouth, tongue, taste.
Roughly halfway between Bettyhill and Tongue on the A836 road, keep your eyes peeled for the sign to Skerray (4 miles) and travel down that road. About 1¾ mile on, take the tiny lane on your left up the slope for 0.6 miles (1km), and just before the sharp bend in the road (across a small bridge) there’s a gate on your left. Go thru here and follow the tiny path alongside the burn (stream) westwards for half-a-mile until where the waters become a bog within a wide oval bowl in the landscape. At the far-side you’ll see two large boulders sat above this watery bowl. That’s where you need to be!
Archaeology & History
The big fella of the two
This is carving “number one” of two great incised boulders that are sat upon a natural ridge overlooking a dried-up lochan. An impressive spot that give a thoroughly distinct impression of altar stones above the sunken waters, from whence rites and proclamations were performed. It has that look and feel about it—and any animist would tell you the same. My hardcore dreams aside though…
This profile is for the larger of the two boulders that live here (Allt Thorrisdail 2 is here). It has very curious petroglyphic attributes—much like its compatriot—unlike many of those in these northern lands. The pair of them seem to have been described for the first time in Hew Morrison’s (1883) fine meanderings through the mythic history of the region. He told that,
“About a mile distant (from Torrisdale) two large cup marked boulders lie on the slope of a hill. The marks are disposed in groups of one large and nine smaller cups. On the larger boulder there are two of these groups and seven separate marks.”
There are slightly more than that, and this was pointed out when the Royal Commission (1911) lads came to see it:
“The largest boulder, that situated furthest west, is about 8 feet high and 14 feet in length. On its south side, chiefly on the flat and less abrupt face of the stone, are groups of cup-marks of from 2in to 3in in diameter, the deepest being about 1in in depth, while a number are now almost obliterated. The extent of the markings is not very definite, but there appear to be two groups containing about twelve cup-marks each.”
Another chorus of cupsLichen-dappled cupmarks
But this only tells of half the stone’s symbolic story. For on the vertical northern face of the rock, from just above ground-level, we have a distinct almost straight line of many cup-marks, going up diagonally, at an angle of about 35º. I took a number of photos of this aspect of the stone, but the covering of lichens didn’t highlight them clearly at all. When you’re stood looking at them they stand out like a sore thumb!
I have to be honest and say that I bloody well love this site! You have to paint the entire environment in the right light, as it was when the stone was first carved, surrounded by the scattered woodland of birch, pines and rowan all across where now we have stunning barren moorlands. Tis a ritual place indeed – without any shadow of doubt!
References:
Mercer, R.J., Archaeological Field Survey in Northern Scotland 1976-1979, University of Edinburgh 1980.
Royal Commission on Ancient & Historical Monuments, Scotland, Second Report and Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the County of Sutherland. HMSO: Edinburgh 1911.
Acknowledgements: Huge thanks to Sarah MacLean for her company and landscape knowledge in visiting this and other nearby antiquarian remains. And to Aisha Domleo, for getting me into this neck o’ the woods.
