Cup-Marked Stone (dubious): OS Grid Reference – NT 12908 69669
Also Known as:
Tormain ‘F’ (Allen 1882)
Archaeology & History
Tormain 6 (left of centre)
On the small rock right next to the plain Tormain (7) cup-marking is this, the least impressive and least likely candidate as an authentic cup-marked stone. Its existence was first added to the Tormain Hill cluster by Romilly Allen (1882) following his visit here. The carving has been maintained as the real deal, even by the Scottish Rock Art Project, but I have severe doubts as to the archaic nature of this marking. It seems to be geophysical in nature and there are innumerable marks such as the one found here that I’ve dismissed on my countless petroglyphic excursions over the years. I’d like to be wrong though. (the “carving” is so unimpressive that I didn’t even waste time taking a decent photo of it —so my apologies to those who wanted greater image clarity) When the Royal Commission (1929) surveyed Tormain Hill, they mentioned “a single cup on one boulder,” but gave no indication which of the three single cup-marked stones they meant.
Royal Commission Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the Counties of Midlothian and West Lothian, HMSO: Edinburgh 1929.
Follow the same directions to get to the Tormain (1) carving, but take a few steps backwards from it and it’s on a small flat earthfast stone to your right (west). You’ll see it.
Archaeology & History
Tormain bullaun stone
Just a stride or so away (north) from the dubious Tormain (2) cup-marking we find a much more likely prehistoric contender in front of us. It’s notably different from the others on the hill in that it possesses a very large wide and deep ‘cup mark’ which, if it was found in Ireland, would undoubtedly be classed as a bullaun stone. That was the first thing I exclaimed to myself when I clapped eyes on it! A bullaun can be a man-made or natural hollow or basin cut into outcropping rock, boulders or small portable stones and used for various pragmatic and ritual purposes – many with traditions and folklore attached. Sadly, no such folklore is remembered here.
There are four other smaller standard sized cup-marks, at various distances from the primary bullaun, one of which may be Nature’s handiwork. They were illustrated by the great Romilly Allen (1882) when he first wrote about the carving. One of the cups may have a faint carved line running from it, but this would require the attention of the computer imagery dudes to confirm or deny this. It wasn’t seen by Allen, who simply said of it:
“The carvings on it consist of a bowl-shaped depression, 6 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep, and four cups near it varying in diameter from 1 to 1½ inches.”
Tormain 3 carvingTormain 3 (with 1, 2 & 7 marked)
The fact that bullauns possess a number of practical uses implies the large ‘bowl’ may have been used in a pragmatic sense for something, with the proximity of the impressive Tormain (1) carving just yards away almost appealing for ceremonial association of one form or another. We find similar bullaun/petroglyph associations at a number of other recognized rock art sites: the Mixing Stone in North Yorkshire being just one example. Large bowl-shaped hollows have been used in some cultures like mortar and pestles to macerate herbs, used in medicines and paints, both of which may have been applicable here.
Best approached from Ratho village, head up Main Street towards Bonnington Mains. Shortly after the last road in the village (Halicroft Park, on the right) a small line of trees appears on the left and about 250 yards on a footpath takes you therein. Follow this for 250 yards (it runs parallel to the road) and the path then slopes uphill alongside the field. Go all the way to the top (roughly 500 yards) where the small copse of trees crowns the summit. On the ground there are a number of both small and medium-sized flat earthfast stones. You need to walk to the one at the end, just where the hill begins to slope back down. You’ll find it!
Archaeology & History
Tormain Hill, or the hill of stones (Harris 1996), has an interesting cluster of petroglyphs on its top, with this one in particular being the most impressive. It’s the southernmost stone in what’s been designated as a cluster of eight carvings—although we need to be slightly sceptical of one or two of them. Not this one though!
Regarded by Ron Morris (1981) as being “one of the best cup-and-ring designs in Scotland”, it was first mentioned by John Smith (1874) who visited the site with the local farmer James Melvin, who’d discovered the carving some years earlier. Initially he only noticed cup-markings, but when he visited the place with the pioneering rock art researcher Sir James Simpson, upon “removing the shallow soil or turf from the rock on the summit of Tormain Hill” this impressive multiple-ringed design came to light: “one cup (and) four concentric circles .”
A few years later another rock art pioneer, J. Romilly Allen (1882) visited Tormain and found quite a bit more upon this hill. This particular carving, he told,
Allen’s 1882 sketchTormain ‘A’ site (Allen 1882)
“is much the finest and most remarkable in every way. It is the most southerly of the whole group, and is a piece of natural rock projecting from the side of the hill about 9 inches above the turf, and measures 4 feet 3 inches long by 2 feet 3 inches wide. Its upper surface is flat, of oval shape, and slopes slightly towards the hill. It is intersected by two parallel cracks of natural formation. The sculptures consist of twenty cups varying in diameter from three quarters of an inch to 2 inches in diameter. Seven of the cups are surrounded by a single ring, and one by four concentric circles. These latter are not complete, but form loops round terminal cups. Three of the cups with single rings are arranged in the form of a triangle. In addition to the cups and rings are two long grooves, one cutting off the corner of the stone, and the other parallel to one of the natural cracks.”
Beckensall’s 1986 version
More then forty years later the Royal Commission (1929) dudes visited the Tormain stones. It had become so overgrown by then that only two of the eight carved stones were visible: “but a search beneath the turf revealed the other sculpturings,” they told. It would seem that they chose a bit of a grey day when they came here as they told how the carving appeared “so much worn that the concentric rings are, in particular, difficult to follow.” So they did a rubbing of the stone—a common practice of rock art students over the last century or two. In doing so they were able to discern the following:
“The boulder is fractured in two places by natural agencies, but it shows traces of twenty cup-marks, varying from little more than half-an-inch to fully two inches in diameter, and there are two separate gutters. Seven at least of the cups are surrounded by single rings, and in two instances the rings are connected by shallow gutters to simple cup-marks. The largest cup-mark on the stone is encircled by one complete ring with three additional concentric arcs linking up four of the other rings. Another group consists of three cups, each surrounded by a ring, which are closely set in the form of a triangle, with three other smaller cup-marks in close proximity.”
Impressive stuff! In more recent times the site has gained the attention of fellow rock art explorers like Kaledon Naddair, Stan Beckensall and others—but we’re still none the wiser what it means!
Its position in the landscape was probably an important element. Pinus sylvestris (the ley-hunter’s favourite tree) grows spaciously, as it is wont, atop of the hill and, in bygone centuries, would have been much more prevalent before farming enveloped the land hereabouts. It was likely clear of trees on top of Tormain when the stone was carved, giving uninterrupted 360° views of the hills, high and low, as far as the eye can see. The legendary prehistoric Cairnpapple Hill stood out due west from the carving and other notable hilltops in the Pentlands would have had mythic relevance. Sadly, all oral tradition has long long faded and so whatever narratives that were told here have long ago been lost. It strikes me as a tribal gathering place: a moot hill perhaps. The bullaun stone adjacent to this fine carving would be a receptacle for paints, herbs, elixirs to be macerated and used by the people….
Check it out. Have a feel of the place. But spend a few hours here and listen to the wind…
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.
Harris, Stuart, The Place-Names of Edinburgh: Their Origins and History, Gordon Wright: Edinburgh 1996.
MacLean, Adam, The Standing Stones of the Lothians, Megalithic Research Publications: Edinburgh 1977.
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.
Found just a few strides away from the most impressive cup-and-ring stone at Tormain, is this quite un-impressive example and can easily be ignored. This simple cup-marked stone, first mentioned in Romilly Allen’s (1882) survey as “Stone B”,
“…lies 10 feet 3 inches to the north of stone A, and measures 4 feet by 2 feet 3 inches. It has a single cup cut on it.”
Tormain 2 “carving”Tormain 2 “carving”
Despite this being included in archaeological surveys as prehistoric, I’m unsure regarding the archaic authenticity of this single cup-mark and wonder whether it was just the result of idle dabblings by one of the quarrymen here in the 19th century. The lack of erosion leads me to suspect this. It has the appearance of cup-marks that have been carved by students at several different places in Britain (South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Perthshire, Renfrewshire, etc) over the last forty years. I’m quite happy to be wrong though! When the Royal Commission (1929) survey mentioned “a single cup on one boulder,” this may have been the one they were referring to.
Royal Commission Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the Counties of Midlothian and West Lothian, HMSO: Edinburgh 1929.
If you start from the Castleton (2) carving, in the first small birch copse closest to the road, walk to its southeast side where there’s a small break before the next small birch copse begins which runs along the raised rocky crag to the southeast. Walk along the back lower east-side of these birches for about 100 yards until you reach a break in the copse (the next lot of trees are another 30-40 yards further on) and from here walk up the slope onto the first flat piece of rock on the crag itself. Zigzag hereabouts until you’re about two or three yards from the edge.
Archaeology & History
Single cup-and-ring
Once this rock surface is covered again by Nature’s carpet, you’ll struggle to find it. Unlike many of its more ornate neighbours, this seems to be a lonely solitary cup-and-ring design, cut near the edge of a large level piece of otherwise blank rock. Numerous geological nicks and scratches scatter the same surface, but the carved element is easy enough to see, as the photos here show. It was rediscovered in the 1980s by Morris & van Hoek (1986) who described it simply as “a single cup and one ring, 8cm in diameter on horizontal rock.” There may well be additional elements to this design beneath the soil.
References:
Morris, Ronald W.B. & van Hoek, Maarten, “Stirling District: Castleton 4d; Castleton 5e,” in Discovery & Excavation, Scotland, 1986.
Acknowledgments: Massive thanks to Thomas Cleland for helping to make this site visible again.
Start from the Castleton (2) carving, in the first small birch copse closest to the road and walk to its southeast side where there’s a small break in the trees before the next small birch copse begins, which runs along the raised rocky crag to the southeast. Walk to the front or western side of the trees there and along the very edge of the low crag. About thirty yards along, right on the edge of where the rocks begin, look for the smooth sloping earthfast boulder (about 20 yards before the mighty nine-ringer of Castleton 7). Rummage around and you’ll find it.
Archaeology & History
Castleton (7e) carving
This newly recorded petroglyph was rediscovered by Thomas Cleland on August 6, 2025. Initially it was thought to consist of just a single cup-and-ring with an opening from which a carved line ran outwards; but, once wet, there seemed to be the beginning of an outer second-ring on its left-side. You can see it clearly in the photos. And, the more we looked, the more it seemed there were one or two other very faded elements.
Above the main cup-and-ring is a faint, shallow cup-marking and surrounding this appears to be an incomplete dumb-bell-shaped ‘ring’ that you can only just make out in the photos. It’s very faded and would seem to pre-date the primary design by some considerable time (unless, of course, it was merely ‘outlined’, so to speak and never completed).
Cup & ring & faint ‘bell’Cup & ring & faint ‘bell’
Both Tom and I are convinced that there’s more to this carving than is presently visible. The rock is covered in deeply compacted soil and it would require a lot of work to uncover the rest of it. A job for the future maybe…..
Note to self: This carving and all the others in the Castleton complex need to be fully re-catalogued as their indexing is haphazard through various academic tomes and websites.
Acknowledgements: Massive thanks to Thomas Cleland for locating this carving, for the first time in millenia. 🙂
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.
