Follow the directions as if you’re visiting the impressive multi-ringed design of the Castleton (10) carving. Once there, walk south-east along the geological ridge for 45 yards where the small cliff drops down to the field. Just where this drop occurs, on a lower horizontal level of the rock face (only a small section) you’ll notice two distinct “cups”. You can’t really miss it!
Archaeology & History
This very basic cup-marked stone was, until recently, covered in dense gorse, making access to the site almost impossible. But following a fire that happened here not too long ago, the smoldering remains needed to be cleared and, once the job was done, we were able to see the two distinct ‘cups’ that were first described in Maarten van Hoek’s (1996) survey. But the cups that he described are, most likely, little more than Nature’s handiwork. I’m somewhat skeptical of them as being the real deal. In the same survey, he added another site, which are just natural bowls in the rock just over 100 yards southwest of here as being cup-marks — which they’re not!
References:
van Hoek, M.A.M.,”Prehistoric Rock Art around Castleton Farm, Airth,” in Forth Naturalist & Historian, volume 19, 1996.
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; making sure you keep to the west-side of the burn – don’t cross over it! Beyond the farm, the fields open up ahead of you into the distant hills. Keep along the track until, after a few hundred yards, on the left by the waters, the first small copse of trees appears. (if you reach the bothy, you’ve gone way to far) Here, walk towards the waters and you’ll see good-sized boulder sticking out of the ground and overlooking the burn below. That’s it.
Archaeology & History
This faded but decent cup-and-ring design, cut into an overhanging rock where you’d sit and dangle your legs, was first described by George Currie (2009) who, in his typically minimalist style told that it “bears 17 cups, 4 of which have single rings.” There may be more to it, but some of the stone is heavily covered in vegetation and on my visit here, the summer heat overwhelmed my ability to gain a complete picture of the surface.
The Urlar Burn (4) carving
Faded design in bright sun
Most of the design is near the western earthfast end of the stone. A long natural scratch in the rock, seemingly enhanced by the hand of man, separates at least three shallow cup-marks on one side (north) from the greater mass of the design on the other —which is where all the cup-and-rings can be seen. One of the rings is incomplete, whilst another has a natural crack running up to its outer edge, which may have been played around with slightly when the carving was first made.
I liked it here – and spent an hour or so under the bright sun before the heat pushed me away, to bathe in the pool below for a while…. Check it out when you’re looking at the other carvings in the neighbourhood
Folklore
Some cup&rings close-up
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 this spot may have been one of his abodes. Urisks are associated in some places with cup-marked stones, in which offerings of milk were given to placate them — and this is a good site for any urisk to look over his winding waters….
References:
Currie, George, “Perth and Kinross: Dull: Urlar Burn 1-4,” in Discovery & Excavation Scotland (new series), volume 10, 2009.
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:
Currie, George, “Perth and Kinross: Dull: Urlar Burn (3),” in Discovery & Excavation Scotland (new series), volume 10, 2009.
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:
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.
Take the same directions as if you’re visiting the Tormain (1) carving (the best one of the bunch here), but about five yards before reaching it, to your immediate left, just at the edge of where the hill drops down slightly, you’ll see a small flat rock poking out of the ground that may have been cut and quarried at some time in the past. That’s the one!
Archaeology & History
This small compact design looks like a typical cup-marked stone with the usual scatter of cups in no seeming order—until, that is, you walk around it and look at it from different angles, whereupon you’ll notice that a couple of distinct deep carved lines have been cut in a cross formation, with cup-marks at the ends of the crucifix. My view of this is that cup-marks were done first, probably in the standard Bronze Age period, and the ‘cross’ was cut into the stone at a much later date, probably during the early christian era. The depth of the lines which create the ‘cross’ is deep and thin at the bottom, suggesting a metal tool, which seems to have been cut into an natural crack. Visitors here will notice a small drill-hole near the edge of the stone which seems to have been done by local quarrymen, probably in the 19th century.
It was first described in Romilly Allen’s (1882) article on the Tormain stones. He called it ‘Stone E’ and told that it
Location of Tormain 5
Cups, lines & cross form
“is situated about half-way between stones A and D, and is furthest to the east. It measures 1 foot 4 inches by 1 foot 9 inches, and projects 1 foot above the turf. Its upper surface is flat, and on it are carved eight cups varying in diameter from 1 to 2½ inches. There are two connecting grooves between three of the cups, forming a rude cross. Another cup has a channel leading over the edge of the stone.”
In November 1927, the Royal Commission dudes visited the carving (and its companions), but they had to roll back the turf to see it clearly. On the stone they saw that “at least nine or ten cup-markings, in some cases with connecting gutters, are still more or less clearly outlined.”
Carving highlighted (Morris ’82)
Ron Morris’s old photo
When Ron Morris (1981) visited here, he highlighted the carving in chalk to get a decent impression of the design, as the attached photo here shows. Many traditional cultures ritually paint their carvings at set times of the year, in traditions that go back many centuries—perhaps even millenia. In all probability the same thing was done at some of the British petroglyphs, although there are no remaining traditions. Anyhow, Morris described it succinctly as:
“½m square, ¼m high…on which are: eight cups up to 7cm (3 in) diameter and 4cm (1½ in) deep and some grooves, to of which connect some of the cups to form a well-defined Cross.”
The stone was looked at by the great rock art explorer Kaledon Naddair of Edinburgh, but sadly I’m unable to locate his report and the fine illustrations that always tended to accompany them. If you’re reading this sir, give us your valuable input!
Beckensall, Stan, Rock Carvings of Northern Britain, Shire: Princess Risborough 1986.
Beckensall, Stan, British Prehistoric Rock Art, Tempus: Stroud 1999.
Feachem, Richard, Guide to Prehistoric Scotland, Batsford 1977.
Hadingham Evan, Ancient Carvings in Britain: A Mystery, Garnstone: London 1974.
Morris, Ronald W.B., “The Cup-and-Ring and Similar Early Sculptures of Scotland; Part 2 – The Rest of Scotland except Kintyre,” in Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society, volume 16, 1969.
Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Southern Scotland, BAR: Oxford 1981.
Royal Commission Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the Counties of Midlothian and West Lothian, HMSO: Edinburgh 1929.
Acknowledgements: Huge thanks to Jan Carrington for use of her photos. 🙂
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 ringsAnother 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:
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.
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:
Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Galloway and the Isle of Man, Blandford: Poole 1979.
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.
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:
Stewart, Margaret E.C., “Connachan, Crieff – Cup Marks and Hut Circle,” in Discovery & Excavation, Scotland, 1967.
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:
Currie, George, “Kenmore: Allt Coire Phadairlaidh (AP1): Cup-Marked Rock,” in Discovery & Excavtion Scotland, vol. 9 (new series), 2008.
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.
Fisher, Ian, Early Medieval Sculpture in the West Highlands and Islands, RCAHMS: Edinburgh 2001.
Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Southern Scotland, BAR: Oxford 1981.
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Argyll – Volume 6: Mid-Argyll and Cowal, HMSO: Edinburgh 1988.
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Argyll – Volume 7: Mid-Argyll and Cowal: Medieval and Later Monuments, HMSO: Edinburgh 1992.
Ruggles, Clive, Megalithic Astronomy, BAR: Oxford 1984.
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.
