Numerous ways to get here: probably the easiest (direction wise) is if you’re coming from Dick Hudson’s public house on the southern road surrounding Rombalds Moor. From the pub, head left (east) along Otley Road (passing Weecher reservoir) for 1.9 miles (3.1km) until you reach Reva reservoir where a track leads you to the waters. A small parking spot is on the left-side of the road. From here, go through the gate and along the footpath across the field for nearly 300 yards to the next gate. Go through here and immediately follow the walling down to your left for about 135 yards to the edge of the rushes. It’s there!
Archaeology & History
Single cupmark nr the top
On a recent visit to the Fraggle Rock carving, Tom Cleland foraged about at the edge of what was, in centuries gone by, a good flowing stream below the west slope of Reva Hill. An old pathway cut across one section of it near where the walling now runs, covered these days in the mass of Juncus reeds, typical of mashy grounds. And here, just where folk would cross the waters, Tom found a good sized stone with a single deep cup-mark on its crown, calling through a feast of lichens to be seen once more. There may be a second cup-mark by its side, but the light wasn’t good when we were here, so that’ll be worked out some other day. Anyhow, this one’s probably only for the crazy petroglyph hunters out there. It’s the Fraggle Rock and its companios that you’re gonna be looking for, nearby….
In Steeton, walk up the High Street and after a hundred yards or so, turn right to go up to Quarry House (opposite Falcon Cliffe), up past Quarry Cottages to the end where it turns into a track. Follow the track for 200 yards, where it bends left, then immediately right go into the field, following the wall along for 450 yards where you’ll go through a gate to another rocky steep hill-slope. Walk up by the side of the walling here, at the edge of the trees and, once at the top, bear right and a few yards along keep your eyes peeled. You’re virtually on top of it!
Archaeology & History
Not previously recorded, this is an unusual design: unusual in more ways than one. Firstly, it’s not entirely ‘ancient’; and secondly, the linearity in some of the carved lines around the cup-marks is unusual. It reminded me a little of the Hanging Stones above Ilkley, with its deeply cut lines, swerving around cup-marks, whose lack of ‘ancient’ guise is somewhat betrayed by the fact that Victorian quarry operations uncovered them—much like happened here…
It was first noticed in 2024 by Collette Walsh during a petroglyphic foray in the area. She noticed the distinct cup-marks on the rock surface, but then when she noticed a distinct quarrying mark, she dropped the idea that it was prehistoric. But this distinct quarry or stone-mason mark—executed sometime in the 19th century when the Industrialists were working here—shouldn’t take our attention away from the cup-marks; nor indeed all aspects of the other carved lines that swing round the edges of the deepest of the three cups, which is surrounded by a long curved triangle, some of which was carved into a natural crack, highlighting it more. The single outlying cup looked, from some angles when wet, that it may have had a partial ring around it—but we were unsure and it may have just been a trick of the light, along with our desire to see more than there actually is. Anyhow, it’s worth seeing. But we could do with a stonemason to check it out, enabling us a better assessment of which bits of this design are old and which are not-so-old.
Acknowledgements: To Collette Walsh for uncovering this design; and to Tom Cleland for showing me where it lives!
Cup-and-Ring Stone (removed): OS Grid Reference – NX 550 520
Archaeology & History
This impressive-looking carving was brought to the attention of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries by Sir Herbert H. Maxwell (1900), who thereafter moved it to the National Museum where, I presume, it still lives, in a box somewhere, sleeping gently. Maxwell’s brief resumé of the stone was as follows:
“Cup and Ring-marked Slab…found in a dyke on the farm of Mossyard, Anwoth, Kirkcudbrightshire. This cup-and ring-sculpturing is peculiar in having five rings round the central cup crossed by a gutter which ends in another cup from which gutters also proceed to right and left, each terminating in a cup.”
In Ron Morris’s (1979) survey he erroneously told how the carving had been found in a wall instead of the dyke from whence it came; but, that triviality aside, he described it as,
Morris’ 1979 photoMaxwell’s 1900 drawing
“A cup-and-five-rings, the rings slightly flattened where a radial groove from the cup passes through them. 23cm (9½in) diameter, grooves connecting this with 3 other cups. Carving depths up to ½cm (¼in). The rings are rather lightly pecked though quite wide and well preserved. All gapped, except the inner ring.”
If anyone is able to get any good photos of the carving, out from its museum hideaway, it would be good to see how it’s coping therein….
References:
Maxwell, Herbert R., “Donations to the Museum and Library,” in Proceedings Society Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 35, 1901.
Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Galloway and the Isle of Man, Blandford: Poole 1979.
If you’re coming south out of Dunfermline, or north towards Dunfermline, make sure you go along the A823 Queensferry Road. About a mile short of the town centre you need to turn east along the B916 Aberdour Road. Nearly 1 mile along here, shortly past the Tesco supermarket, turn left along Tweeddale Drive. About 50 yards down here, turn left again along Walls Place. About 120 yards along you’ll find a small ginnel/path that runs between two rows of flats on the council estate. Walk down here for a short distance and the stone will magically appear on your right.
Archaeology & History
This is a bit of an odd one! Early accounts of the monolith are scarce and, on my first visit here, I was somewhat sceptical of its prehistoric provenance. To be honest, I still am. The erosion levels on the stone give the impression that it’s a much more recent erection (calm down… 😉 ), almost as if it was only quarried a century or two ago. Anyhow, that aside. It’s a nice bulky standing stone, nearly six feet tall and erected where the rising land levels out in the middle of the modern housing estate. It was included in the Royal Commission (1933) survey, who said of it:
Pitcorthie, looking SWPitcorthie, looking West
“About 200 yards north of the farm of Easter Pitcorthie, in a field adjoining the north side of the roadway from Dunfermline to Burntisland, stands a roughly rectangular block of sandstone, which presents the appearance of having been subjected to fire or heat. It is set with its main axis due north and south on the crest of slightly rising ground… There are some indications that it has been packed at the base, but what appears to be packing may be no more than a collection of loose stones which have accumulated round it during the years in which the surrounding area has been cultivated. It rises to a height of 5 feet 10 inches above the ground level, but shows no traces of any sculpturings. At 3 feet from the ground its girth if 11 feet 10 inches.”
It would be good if there were other prehistoric remains close by that could erode my slight scepticism about its age, but I think the nearest other Bronze Age monument is the cairn more than half-a-mile to the south-east.
References:
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments, Scotland, Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the Counties of Fife, Kinross and Clackmannan, HMSO: Edinburgh 1933.
Swarbrick, Olaf, A Gazetteer of Prehistoric Standing Stones in Great Britain, BAR: Oxford 2012.
Cup-Marked Stone (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – NN 8575 4901
Also Known as:
Clachmore
Archaeology & History
The Clach Mhor, or the Big Stone, is all but forgotten as an antiquarian relic in Aberfeldy. It’s history is somewhat piecemeal. First described in Hugh MacMillan (1884)’s essay on local cup-and-ring stones, he told that:
“A short distance above the village of Aberfeldy, where General Wade’s old road emerges from the houses, a huge stone, called the Clach Mhor, lies on the left-hand side in a slanting position half erect, as if supported by the garden wall of which it forms a part. …In all likelihood it originally stood erect, and formed one of a group of similar stones, its companions having been broken up in the formation of the road. …On the upper face there are some small cup-markings, not quite so well formed as usual, owing to the hardness of the material… The fact that they occur on only one side of the stone, and are scattered indiscriminately all over its surface, are sufficient to convince any one who is skilled in the subject that they are genuine specimens of prehistoric sculpture.”
Nearly thirty years after this initial description, MacMillan (1901) found that it had previously been a part of The Tullich stone circle, and following its destruction the Clach Mhor was moved and used as “part of a garden wall on the old military road passing along its base.”
More than fifty years later, the Aberfeldy historian N.D. Mackay (1954) told that up to 1910 the Clach Mhor was a conspicuous object, standing “as it were overlooking and to some extent overhanging the roadway down near the Square.” However, it
“was blasted and broken up in 1910 in the course of road widening operations, but a considable part of it was built into, and still forms the lower corner of, the garden boundary wall, nearest The Square, of the house which bears its name, ‘Clachmhor’. Its present position is slightly east of the site it occupied when I first knew it and, unless Wade’s men did actually move it, the site it occupied for centuries.”
Mackay also mentioned what he called the “indentations” on the stone which MacMillam deemed as cup-marks, but he pointed out that one Rev. John MacLean “believed they were made by the levers, jacks, etc, of (General) Wade’s men” when they cut the road into Aberfeldy in the 18th century, whilst
“A third solution was given by the son of a one-time local strong man called Big Robert, “What a strong man my father was,” he said, “he lifted that stone. Don’t you see the marks of his fingers on it?””
It’s not known what became of the Clach Mhor and whether it remains hiding in some walling, or whether it has met its demise….
References:
Mackay, N.D., Aberfeldy Past and Present, Town Council: Aberfeldy 1954.
In Lochearnhead village start walking up the Glen Ogle road and, just past the last house on the right, a dirt-track bends down to an old building. Just before the building, keep your eyes peeled for the small footpath that runs down to the river. Walk along here and cross the river-bridge, then bear diagonally to your left and walk up the singular footpath. It snakes through the trees for a few hundred yards then opens out into a field. About 75 yards along the path in the field the land levels out. From here, walk through the grasses to your right about 20 yards. Zigzag about – you’ll find it.
Archaeology & History
Main cluster + v.faint ring
The setting of this carving is, like many of Perthshire’s petroglyphs, quite beautiful. It was made when the ‘artist’ carving the stone was crouched or sat on the ground, gazing at the southern landscape and heights around Ben Vorlich, whose mythic nature may have been part of the design.
Comprising of a cluster of typical cup-marks, there are two, perhaps three very faint rings in the design, which seems to have been described for the first time in George Currie’s (2012) typically short minimalist way. He told that in the field,
“50m E of the Ogle Burn is a boulder 2.1 x 0.9 x 0.5m, which bears 21 cup marks, 2 of which have single rings.”
Cup and faint ringFaint cups on the crown
Much of the original design is difficult to see in full unless the lighting is good. We spent several hours here and counted 25 cup-marks and found rings around three of them—but these proved difficult to photograph and some more visits are needed to capture them. “Officially” at least, there are no other carvings close to this one. But that’s obviously not going to be the case. Well worth checking out when you’re in the area.
References:
Currie, George, “Stirling: Balquhidder, Glen Ogle – Cup-and ring-marked rock”, in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, volume 13 (New Series), 2012.
The location of this site has proved troublesome. Even when Rob Wilson (1991) did his local survey of holy wells he was unable to locate it—but it looks as if it shouldn’t be too troublesome to find, as the area in which it flowed is still very much a mix of open countryside and maintained landscapes. Described briefly as the “Wishing Well near Whiteley Wood” in Sidney Addy’s (1893) fine work, he makes a rather hopeful attempt to derive the word ‘wishing’ from German mythology, where “one of the names of the god Wuotan or Odin was Wunsch or Wish.” But – well – you just never know…..
In the landscape at Whiteley Wood there is a Priest’s Hill, so if this Well was found there, it may indeed have had an authentic ‘holy’ designation. But there were a couple of ponds in the area too, which may be fed by this spring. So, first, we need to find the well!
References:
Addy, Sidney Oldall, The Hall of Waltheof, William Townsend: Sheffield 1893.
Wilson, Rob, Holy Wells and Spas of South Yorkshire, Northern Arts: Sheffield 1991.
An important water source for local folk in Castley hamlet in previous centuries, this was one of several so-called ‘Wishing Wells’ above the higher banks of the River Wharfe a few miles from each other. It’s a title which, to be honest, was afforded the place when its original local name was removed. It was quite obviously a sacred well in earlier times, as it’s found beneath the slope of Chapel Hill, looking eastwards towards the rising sun, when the waters here (as at countless others) had their greatest remedial or magickal powers. Tradition told there was once a small chapel above the well itself. The spring was highlighted on early Ordnance Survey maps, but all that seems left here today is an occasional boggy mass in the trees at the bottom of the sloping hill.
The old folklorist and antiquarian Edmund Bogg (1904) wrote the following about it:
‘Wishing’ Well on 1888 map
“On the terraced bank near the garden, ’neath an overhanging hawthorn, is a beautiful spring of clear sparkling water, which is locally known as Castley ‘wishing-well.’ More than once we have heard the women-folk declare how, in their maidenhood, they loitered down the bank to the well, usually at eventide, when the birds were warbling their vesper song, and placed their offerings there in silence, yet breathing, as it were, the mute longing of their heart’s desire. It is a natural grotto fit habitation of fairies or the traditional elves. The bank, in which the well is situated, is known as ‘Snake Bank.’”
References:
Edmund Bogg, Higher Wharfeland, James Miles: Leeds 1904.
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.
Stone Circle (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – NN 857 489
Archaeology & History
In an early essay on the rock art around Aberfeldy, Hugh MacMillan (1884) remarked on what he thought was a tumulus on the southern slope above the town and where a large old petroglyph once lived. Subsequently (MacMillan 1901), in his beautiful artistic foray through upper Tayside, he revised his earlier remarks telling that:
“On the side of a high, tree-covered hillock, rising up abruptly behind the central part of Aberfeldy, called the Tullich, there was once a Druidical circle, one of the huge stones of which, called the Clachmore, forms part of a garden wall on the old military road passing along its base.”
The circle was mentioned in Mackay’s (1954) excellent work, albeit in the past tense, and he could add no more to it other than his memory of the whereabouts of the Clach Mhor (as it was more accurately known), on which were numerous cup-markings. (Note: the grid-reference to this site is an approximation)
Folklore
In bygone times the people of Aberfeldy observed the celebration of Samhain, the old pre-christian New Year’s Day—a.k.a. Hallowe’en—on November 11th. Interestingly for us, “bonfires were numerous and there was always a great blaze on the Tullich,” said Dr John Kennedy. (1901) Considering the small area of The Tullich, it would be unusual if such festivities did not have some relationship with the stone circle. Samhain relates primarily to the passing over of the dead in the cycle of the year: the spirits of the ancestors moving through the worlds. If this circle had such a relationship with the bonfires, it may have been a ring cairn and not a free-standing stone circle.
References:
Kennedy, John, Old Highland Days, Religious Tract Society 1901.
Mackay, N.D., Aberfeldy Past and Present, Town Council: Aberfeldy 1954.
Your best starting point is from the Great Skirtful of Stones giant cairn. From here follow the fencing that runs down the slope to your left (south-east) for roughly 160 yards (148m) – past the Great Skirtful Ring – until you reach the gate. Go through it and keep walking down the same fence-line for 300 yards then walk south onto the moorland proper (there are no paths here). You’ll pass over several undulations in the heather (some of these are the edges of ancient trackways) and 55-60 yards south from the fencing you’ll walk over and into this overgrown prehistoric ring. It’s very difficult to see when the vegetation is deep, so persevere!
Archaeology & History
Site shown on 1851 map
This is an interesting site. Marked on the 1851 Ordnance Survey map as a “barrow” (right), it is shown with trackways on either side of it to the north and south, and with an opening or entrance on its northwestern side. Yet since that date, very little archaeological attention has been given to it and the site remains unexcavated, despite its location being repeated on all subsequent maps since then. The designation of the site as a barrow or burial site, without being excavated, was educated guesswork at the time as the place seems to be what we today define as a ring cairn. And whilst this seems likely, there are some oddities here.
Measuring roughly 25 yards (SE – NW) by 21 yards (NE – SW), this overgrown oval ‘ring’ is a similar architectural structure to the more famous Roms Law circle more than half-a-mile northwest of here—but bigger! And, unlilke Roms Law, this overgrown circle seems to have been untouched for many centuries. The oval surrounding ‘ring’ itself is composed of thousands of small packing stones between, seemingly, a number of much larger upright stones, reaching a maximum height of more than three feet high at the northernmost edge. The ‘ring’ ostensibly looks like a wide surrounding wall which measures two yards across all round the structure.
Track running into the ringRaised line into the ring
Internally, there seems little evidence of a burial — although our recent visits here, as the photos indicate, took place when the moorland vegetation was deep and covered almost the entire site. The outline of the site is obviously visible, even in deep heather, but the smaller details remain hidden. But in addition to the main ring, another very distinct ingredient here is the existence of an extended length of man-made parallel walling, probably a trackway, that runs into the circle from the southeast all the way through the circle and out the other side and then continuing northwest heading roughly towards the Great Skirtful giant cairn on the horizon 500 yards to the northwest.
Stone at NE arc of walling
Due to the landscape being so overgrown, it’s difficult to ascertain where this ‘trackway’ begins and ends. Added to this, we find that there are additional ‘trackways’ that run roughly parallel to the one that runs through the circle—and these ‘trackways’ are very old indeed, some of them likely have their origins way back in prehistory. The one that runs through the middle of this ring cairn may be a ceremonial pathway along which, perhaps, our ancestors carried their dead. If we follow it out from here and keep walking along the track 300 yards to the southeast, we eventually run right to the edge of the Craven Hall (3) circle. Parallel to this is another ancient trackway that runs northwest to the edge of the Roms Law circle. It seems very much as if we have ceremonial trackways linking sites to each other: ancestral pathways, so to speak.
Have a gander at this when you’re next in the area. There are many other sites nearby that are off the archaeological radar. In recent years, a number of northern antiquarians wandering over this landscape are finding more and more ancient remains: walling, circles, cairns, trackways. It’s a superb arena—but sadly, most of it is hidden beneath deep moorland vegetation.
References:
Faull, M.L. & Moorhouse, S.A. (eds.), West Yorkshire: An Archaeological Guide to AD 1500– volume 1, WYMCC: Wakefield 1981.
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.
