Balnabroich, Kirkmichael, Perthshire

Cairn:  OS Grid Reference – NO 1008 5695

Getting Here

Balnabroich cairn

From Kirkmichael village take the A94 road 2 miles south to the Balnabroich standing stone and another 100 yards past it, on the left (east) take the dirt-track uphill, following the directions to reach the Balnabroich hut circles. You’ll see the large prehistoric rock pile of the Grey Cairn on the near skyline just above the huts and roughly on the same level, 50 yards away to the south, you’ll see this scruffy lumpy dump of a cairn, all overgrown.

Archaeology & History

The cairn, looking S

Amidst the veritable scatter of a thousand clearance cairns (yes, that’s the estimate), there are a few up here that had more funerary functions than the rest.  This being one of them.  When Allan Stewart (1795) wrote about them all in the Statistical Account, he couldn’t have missed this one—and yet he made no mention of it.  We had to wait another seventy years before the outside world became aware of its existence.  Then, along with “a band of between twenty and thirty workmen,” John Stuart (1865) set out to see what lay beneath the rocky pile.  In truth, much more attention was given to the huge Gray Cairn close by (understandably so), but at least some attention was given here.  Stuart described this cairn as,

“about 9 yards across, defined by large boulders, with a raised ridge around, and a cup in the centre. The raised ridges and centre were all formed of small stones and earth. A trench was cut through it from the southeast, which showed that in the centre, at a depth of 2 feet, a deposit had been made, of which the remains were charred wood and fragments of charred bone, with traces of blackish matter, which had filtered into the yellow subsoil, as in the case of the graves at Hartlaw.’ Many fragments of white quartz pebbles appeared near the centre, as in other cairns to the east.”

Indeed, at least one of the “cairns to the east” is made entirely of quartz stones!  Since Mr Stuart’s dig into the tomb, it has widened out slightly as rummaging cattle and other damage has been inflicted, and the grasses have coloured the tomb with their life.  Check it out when you’re up here!

References:

  1. MacLagan, Christian, The Hill Forts, Stone Circles and other Structural Remains of Ancient Scotland, Edmonston & Douglas: Edinburgh 1875.
  2. Ramsay, John S., Highways and Byways of Strathmore and the Northern Glens, Blairgowrie Advertiser 1927.
  3. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, North-East Perth: An Archaeological Landscape, HMSO: Edinburgh 1990.
  4. Stewart, Allan, “Parish of Kirkmichael,” in Statistical Account of Scotland – volume 15, 1795.
  5. Stuart, John, “Account of Excavations in Groups of Cairns, Stone Circles and Hut Circles on Balnabroch, Parish of Kirkmichael, Perthshire,” in Proceedings Society Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 6, 1865.

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 BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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Balnabroich hut (9), Kirkmichael, Perthshire

Hut Circles:  OS Grid Reference – NO 10018 56937

Getting Here

Low rise of Balnabroich (9)

Along the A924 Strathardle road, a couple of miles south of Kirkmichael, about 100 yards south of the Balnabroich standing stone, look out for the dirt-track that runs up the slope on the east side of the road.  Go up here, past Stylemouth house and further up the track where it opens out into the fields.  Keep heading up the same track and you’ll notice on the near skyline a few hundred yards ahead of you, a mass of stones with a tree growing out of it.  That’s the Grey Cairn; and about 75 yards below it, just to the right-side of the path low down in the grasses, you’ll see this hut circle.

Archaeology & History

In an upland area that is literally teeming with ancient remains, this is a good place to start if you’re wanting a day out exploring.  It’s the best and easiest of the hut circles to find and is a good indicator of what to look for when you’re seeking out the others close by.  This particular prehistoric house has been noted in various books and essays: firstly by the great Scottish antiquarian John Stuart (1868) in his overview of the great mass of sites hereby, saying simply:

“A hut circle on the south-west of the Grey Cairn was dug into around the entrance, in the belief that in this situation articles would probably have been thrown out, but with no result. In the centre, charred wood and minute fragments of bones were found.”

Looking from above
Arc of walling north to east

The great Christian MacLagan (1875) came to survey the area shortly after Stuart’s visit, making a series of sketches of some of the circles.  She noted fourteen huts hereby, but it’s not totally clear which of them is this particular “hut 9”.  It seems to have been her hut circle no.13, which she told “has a central chamber 40 feet in diameter, and its wall is 10 feet broad.”  This is pretty close to our modern measurements. From outer wall to outer wall, its east-west axis measures 47 feet, and its north-south axis measures 49 feet.  The most notable section of the walling is on is northern and eastern sides where it is deeply embedded into the ground.

When you’re sitting in this hut circle, eating your sandwich or drinking your juice, remember that thousands of years ago someone was doing exactly the same thing in the place where you’re now sat!

Just 70 feet away is hut circle no.10 in this cluster; whilst above this is the massive prehistoric rock pile of the Grey Cairn; and the smaller earth-covered mound above you to the right is another prehistoric burial.  A small stone circle is on the moorland level beyond that… There’s plenty to see here.

References:

  1. Coutts, Herbert, Ancient Monuments of Tayside, Dundee Museum 1970.
  2. Harris, Judith, “A Preliminary Survey of Hut-circles and Field Systems in SE Perthshire”, in Proceedings Society Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 114, 1984.
  3. MacLagan, Christian, The Hill Forts, Stone Circles and other Structural Remains of Ancient Scotland, Edmonston & Douglas: Edinburgh 1875.
  4. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, North-East Perth: An Archaeological Landscape, HMSO: Edinburgh 1990.
  5. Stuart, John, “Account of Excavations in Groups of Cairns, Stone Circles and Hut Circles on Balnabroch, Parish of Kirkmichael, Perthshire,” in Proceedings Society Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 6, 1865.
  6.  Thorneycroft, Wallace, “Observations on Hut Circles near the Eastern Border of Perthshire, north of Blairgowrie,” in Proceedings Society Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 67, 1933.

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 BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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Balnabroich hut (10), Kirkmichael, Perthshire

Hut Circle:  OS Grid Reference – NO 09997 56964

Getting Here

Hut Circle 10, circled

From Kirkmichael to the Balnabroich standing stone, take the same directions as if you’re heading up to the Balnabroich hut circle (9). Just over 20 yards NNW of it, on the other side of the faint footpath that takes you to the Grey Cairn, look closely at the ground and you’ll see a broken oval of stones in the grasses.

Archaeology & History

This can be difficult to see in poor light, and I found it easier to look at from above, closer to the Grey Cairn.

Hut remains, circled

It’s one of the twenty (known) hut circles in this archaeologically rich neck o’ the woods.  Nothing special to look at, but it is perhaps 4000 years old!  This one seems to have been listed by Christian MacLagan (1875) as her hut circle no.12 and which she described briefly, telling that “the central chamber of this circle is 36 feet in diameter, and the surrounding wall is 15 feet broad.”  Much of the walling would seem to have been stripped away considerably since MacLagan’s time.  The faded remains of its entrance can be seen on its southwestern side.

References:

  1. Coutts, Herbert, Ancient Monuments of Tayside, Dundee Museum 1970.
  2. Harris, Judith, “A Preliminary Survey of Hut-circles and Field Systems in SE Perthshire”, in Proceedings Society Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 114, 1984.
  3. MacLagan, Christian, The Hill Forts, Stone Circles and other Structural Remains of Ancient Scotland, Edmonston & Douglas: Edinburgh 1875.
  4. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, North-East Perth: An Archaeological Landscape, HMSO: Edinburgh 1990.
  5. Stuart, John, “Account of Excavations in Groups of Cairns, Stone Circles and Hut Circles on Balnabroch, Parish of Kirkmichael, Perthshire,” in Proceedings Society Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 6, 1865.
  6.  Thorneycroft, Wallace, “Observations on Hut Circles near the Eastern Border of Perthshire, north of Blairgowrie,” in Proceedings Society Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 67, 1933.

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 BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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Down Hill, Glendevon, Perthshire

Hillfort:  OS Grid Reference – NO 0008 0365

Also Known as:

  1. Castle Hill
  2. Dun Hill

Getting Here

Looking up at Down Hill

Travelling north along the A823 Glendevon road (between Muckhart and Gleneagles), barely 2 miles after Muckhart, on your right you’ll see the large Castlehill reservoir.  Park here.  Across the waters is the large Down Hill—which the hillfort crowns.  So, just walk back the way you came along the road for nearly 600 yards and then turn left to walk onto the other side of the water, round to the very end of the track and then up the path into the trees.  Walk along this winding path for 300 yards until you reach the track that takes you (left) up to Downhill Farm.  One way or the other, past there, just stagger up to the top of the hill!

Archaeology & History

SW wall from rampart

My only visit here was a short one – when some pretty awesome freezing gales were nearly throwing me off the top once I’d got up there!  Twas incredible!  On my way  to the top, nearly there, on its western side, I stopped and looked each side of me as it looked as if a long overgrown line of embankments was running roughly north-south.  It seemed very vague and hillforts aren’t my subject, so with the help of the wind throwing me everywhere, I made my my final zoom to the summit, only to be intruded upon again, perhaps 50 feet from the top by another similar-looking embanked ridge—this time with some stones along it and which I was pretty sure were earthworks, or ramparts as they’re known.  And so it turned out to be.

Once on top, the views are superb!  But I couldn’t really take it in on my short visit here as the freezing wind was truly incredible and I could barely stand upright.  And so I briskly followed to the quite notable stone-walled edges of the main prehistoric “enclosure” and walked round the edges as best I could, hoping that at least one or two of the photos I was taking weren’t too blurred.

Views from above
SW wall & central structure

The interal “settlement” portion of the hillfort is quite large, obviously, allowing for a good number of people to live here (regardless of the wind!).  It’s roughly oblong in shape, aligning northwest to southeast, measuring in length a maximum of 78 yards from outer wall to outer wall, with a maximum width of 30 yards (SW to NE).  The collapsed walling is still quite extensive and visible above the long grasses almost all the way round the entire structure, averaging one or two yards across.  Near the centre of the fortress is a large pile of stones that seemed to have been a structure of some kind, but when i was here I didn’t hang around for too long to inspect it as I was, by now, bloody freezing!  It didn’t seem to be a walker’s cairn, but we need another gander to work out what it might have been.

Northern arc of walling
NW line of walling

Curiously this site has had little said about it in archaeo-tomes and to my knowledge, no excavations have happened here.  Incredibly, the place wasn’t even recognised as a prehistoric site in official records until the Royal Commission (1963) told of it being “discovered during the survey of marginal lands (1956-58)”!  Its very name derives from the word dun, or fort (Watson 1995) and as the place-name writer found out, it was first mentioned in 1542, as Donehill, and many times thereafter in various documents.

Anyhow—check the place out.  It’s mightily impressive and the views from the top are excellent.  Just avoiding going up there in a freezing gale!

References:

  1. Hogg, A.H.A., British Hill-Forts: An Index, BAR: Oxford 1979.
  2. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments Scotland, Stirlingshire – volume 1, HMSO: Edinburgh 1963.
  3. Watson, Angus, The Ochils: Placenames, History, Tradition, PKDC: Perth 1995.

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 BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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Stroness (3), Fowlis Wester, Perthshire

Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 9285 2754

Getting Here

Stroness (3) stone

If you can make your way to the Stroness (2) carving, then walk down the slope for less than 50 yards past quite a few other earthfast stones, you’ll eventually run into the stone shown here in the photos.  You’ll find it easily enough.

Archaeology & History

This carving was found when I was heading down the hillside to meet up with my antiquarian colleague 500 yards lower down.  The sun was just setting, so visibility wasn’t good, but as I rushed from stone to stone feeling each one in the hope of finding a carving, this one gave my fingers that distinct feedback of a cup-marking; then another; and what seemed like another.  I had a small amount of water left in a bottle and quickly sprayed it over the surface of the stone and saw that there were indeed a number of cups on it.  Two or three certainly – but possibly as many as five.  I laid on the wet ground and looked across its even surface from several angles and caught what seemed to be a very faint semi-circle around one of the cups.  But I wasn’t sure it was real.  However, on a number of quick photos I took, several of them do appear to show such an arc around one of the cups.  But I’m very cautious about it.  Only when we (or you) go back up and have a look at it in good light will we be able to affirm or discount it.

One additional feature that needs mentioning is a small low arc of walling just above this stone.  It’s man-made, it’s very old, but I couldn’t work out what it might be: hut circle, cairn (there’s one further up the hill), enclosure walling.  I’m not sure, but it needs to be looked at when we have a full day.

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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Stroness (2), Fowlis Wester, Perthshire

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 92774 27569

Also Known as:

  1. Buchanty Hill

Getting Here

Stroness (2), looking SW

The minor road that runs roughly north-south between the hamlets of Fowlis Wester and Buchanty is probably your best bet.  Nearly 2 miles north of the village up the tiny winding lane, where the moorland at the roadside finishes and the fields begin – is where to take the track, left, up onto the hillside.  But after just 75 yards, go left over the rickety-gate and follow the walling until your reach the burn.  Follow this up all the way to its source (it’s boggy as hell) and, once you’re there, walk due north for 250 yards until you reach a cluster of rocks.  Look around!

Archaeology & History

It’s a long way to come to see such a simplistic design —but for the real petroglyph researchers among you, it’s worth it the trek.  It’s had scant attention.  George Currie (2004) seems to have been the only person to mention this stone, giving the standard bland description typifying archaeology.  He wrote:

“SE-facing slope, 1.2m long pointed rock aligned E-W; three shallow cups, 30-40 x 6-10mm.”

Inspiring stuff, ey?!  Anyhow… As usual, there’s more to it than that.  If we assume that the carving described above is the same one I visited yesterday (Mr Currie’s grid-ref is slightly different), even despite the poor daylight, it was obvious there was more than three cup-marks on this.

Lower cups & upper cups

Cups on top

When I got to this stone, the evening sun was literally touching the horizon and so the light cutting across half the rock highlighted very little indeed.  I was rushing, trying to fondle and see as much as I could before the darkening sky clouded everything, and as I almost frenetically sprayed showers of water across its surface, the two or three cups that I could see near the crown of the stone suddenly doubled in number.  Two cups along one edge became three; whilst the sloping surface above these that had one cup suddenly seemed to have a companion.  On the highest part of this gently sloping stone, the form of one of the two distinct cup-marks that first caught my eye seemed to slowly morph into one of the carved “footprint” designs, akin to those clustered on the Ardoch (2) carving 1½ miles south-west of here.  However, this element needs looking at again, as it may have been a curious playful trick between stone and light showing me something that wasn’t there!  Things like that happen with stones.

Altogether there are at least six cup-marks on here, but perhaps as many as eight.  Obviously, if we (or you) visit the site when the light is much better, an even larger design might emerge from this old rock.

I spent perhaps just five minutes here, before heading back down to meet my companion 500 yards below in the midst of the boggy moorland.  Usually a carving gets my fondles for a an hour or two, but conditions weren’t good for us to form a healthy relationship. And so, as I headed downhill, another unrecorded cup-marked stone appeared beneath my rushing feet (Stroness [3] carving)— and I spoke with that for only a couple of minutes.  We need to come back up here and zigzag to find other companions that lay sleeping, forgotten for countless centuries…

References:

  1. Currie, George, ‘Buchanty Hill (Fowlis Wester parish): Cup-marked Rocks’, in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, volume 5, 2004.

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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Stroness (1), Fowlis Wester, Perthshire

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 91981 26817

Also Known as:

  1. Buchanty Hill

Getting Here

The stone in its setting

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 edge

Cups 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:

  1. Currie, George, ‘Buchanty Hill (Fowlis Wester parish): Cup-marked Rocks’, in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, volume 5, 2004.

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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Stroness, Fowlis Wester, Perthshire

Hut Circles:  OS Grid Reference – NN 9201 2689

Getting Here

Overgrown outline of hut

If you’re coming here you’re obviously making a day out of it!  You’ll be taking the shortest route to the Ardoch (2) petroglyph, via the Foulford golf course along 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 along the same track for another 200 yards and on your left watch out for the track-cum-footpath going up the slope past the petroglyph, onto the hilltop, then through the gate and down the path for about ⅔-mile until you reach the burn.  On the other side, go through the gate and 100 yards uphill through another one, walk immediately to your left alongside the fence.  About 20 yards from the wall, look at the ground.  Zigzag about!

Archaeology & History

Two distinct but very overgrown hut circles sit next to each other on the first ridge above the burn.  When they were first built—sometime in the Bronze Age most likely—the landscape here was slightly different to what we see today. Scattered woodland of hazel, birch and Scots pine lived all across these hills and the small burn 100 yards below would have been much faster flowing, with trout and smaller fish in plentiful supply.  The large cup-marked stone between the burn and these huts would have had some magico-religious meaning to the people living here.  Indeed, it may have been carved by the people who built the huts, or they might have rested here due to its presence. I point out these simple ingredients to give a little more life to a site which, today, seems so isolated, lonely and unimpressive.  It’s essential that we paint the history of this and all our ancient monuments with the colourful shades they lived within: of the forests and their animals, so as to give these seemingly bland lifeless remains a feeling in order to rekindle their history.

Apart from the large petroglyph less than 100 yards below, these hut circle are apparently in isolation if we go by the record books.  And they’re difficult to make out when the grasses are tall—as they were when I visited recently.  They are both roughly the same size—about 11 yards across—and, most likely, each housed a small family.  The one closest to the wall is the slightly smaller of the two.  It was first reported by Miss Comrie (1972) who initially only noticed one of the two huts—probably due to the long grasses.  She told that,

“On an area known as Buchanty Hill at 1000ft is a hut circle with a diameter of 11mand wall width of 2m.  Situated in a hollow, sheltered from the north and with an entrance on the downward-side facing south.  The walling has no obvious inner or outer facing.”

On my visit to this place, the silence was deafening and the fading daylight painted the hills with a stunning velvet breath all across the veil of Her body.  It’s a gorgeous isolated place that you might aswell sit down with after you’ve finished looking at the rock art…

References:

  1. Comrie, J.E.M., “Fowlis Wester Parish: Hut Circle,” in Discovery & Excavation, Scotland, 1972.

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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The Dhuine, Farr, Sutherland

Broch (ruins):  OS Grid Reference – NC 7175 6338

Getting Here

Remains above roadside

From Bettyhill village, take the A836 road east (as if you’re heading towards Thurso) for literally 1½ miles (2.4km) and take the left turn to Farr (signposted).  Exactly a mile along, just past the gated house above the road on your right, in the sloping field below it, you’ll notice a seemingly innocuous scatter of stones doing nothing in particular in the grassland.  That’s it!

Archaeology & History

There’s not too much to look at here, apart from a very overgrown mass of loose stones seemingly piled up near the bottom of the sloping hillside.  It was first noted when James Horsburgh (1870) explored the prehistoric sites of the region, but even then the site was mentioned with some brevity, telling simply:

“On the way from Farr to Borve Castle, there are the foundations of a Pictish tower at Clarkhill, the stones of which are larger than usual, being square blocks.”

Looking down on the ruins

His description regarding its precise whereabouts wasn’t very clear, but it was located some years later by the Royal Commission (1911) who subsequently added the site to their Inventory.  They found that the broch was “at the extreme west end of a low rocky ridge on which are situated the buildings of a croft bearing the name of The Dun.”  They reported, even then, that only a few large stones of the broch remained visible.  `

The site was included in Euan Mackie’s (2007) magnum opus, where he described the only remains left of this “possible broch” to be “the basal course of the outer wall…forming an arc about 9.0m long.”

References:

  1. Horsburgh, James, Notes of Cromlechs, Duns, Hut-circles, Chambered Cairns and other Remains, in the County of Sutherland“, in Proceedings Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 7, 1870
  2. MacKie, E W., The Roundhouses, Brochs and Wheelhouses of Atlantic Scotland c.700 BC-AD 500 – volume 2, British Archaeological Report: Oxford 2007.
  3. Royal Commission Ancient & Historical Monuments, Scotland, Second Report and Inventory of Monuments & Constructions in the County of Sutherland. HMSO: Edinburgh 1911.

Acknowledgements:  With thanks to the old crew of Aisha and her little Lara for getting me up here, oh so many years ago now…..

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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Barry Hill, Alyth, Perthshire

Cup-Marked Stone (lost):  OS Grid Reference – NO 262 503

Archaeology & History

In an excursion to the Iron Age Hillfort on Barry Hill in the early 1960s by some members of the Perthshire Society of Natural Science, near the very top on its southwestern side they discovered “a small cup marked stone.” (Longworth 1962)  It hasn’t been seen since.  And whether it was in the walling of the fort, or was a carved earthfast rock, they neglected to tell.  When I visited here several years ago I couldn’t find the damn thing and presume that it’s simply been overgrown by the vegetation.  In the event that you manage to rediscover the carving, see if you can catch us a good photo or two and stick ’em on our Facebook group.

References:

  1. Longworth, Ian, “Dundee, Angus,” in Discovery & Excavation, Scotland, 1962.

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

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