Scotland – Page 4

St. Helen’s Well, Maybole, Ayrshire

26/06/202307/07/2023 megalithix

Holy Well (covered): OS Grid Reference – NS 31322 13423

Archaeology & History

In spite of this site being covered over some time in the 1950s, it is still retained on the modern Ordnance Survey maps. It was shown on the first one in 1860, but its literary history goes back much further. We find it described by the Minister for Maybole — one William Abercrummie — in his short 17th Century work named A Description of Carrict. He noted several springs in Maybole township, with this one of possessing the usual hallmarks of both christian and peasant customs alike:

“Another spring there is called St. Helens well or by a curt pronuntiation St. Emus for St. Antonies well, it is about a myle and ane halfe from Mayboll on the road to Aire a litle north of Balachmont. It is famous for the cure of unthriving children, to which at the change of the quarter especially at May-day there is a great resort of people from all quarters, and at a good distance.”

This piece was repeated in several 19th century works, including one by William Roberston (1891), who commented on the traditions themselves, saying:

“This can unquestionably be traced as a remnant of the ancient superstition that miracles were wrought at Holy Wells; which all the anathemas of the Reformed Kirk could not for a time obliterate from the minds of the common people. The records of the Kirk-session bear witness to the prevalence of applying to Saints’ Wells for the cure of bodily infirmities on stated occasions; particularly, when the Saint or Angel was understood to ‘move the waters.’ Pins, pieces of the dress of the patient, or such small trifles, were left at the well – the remains, no doubt, of the offerings formerly made to the Clergy – and in token that the disease was transferred from the sufferer to the rags, thus offered to the Genius loci. Numerous traces of this prevailing superstition could easily be cited.”

When the Ordnance Survey dudes wrote about the site in the Name Book in 1857, all they could tell us was that it was, “a beautiful spring of excellent water” but was said to have “no medicinal properties.”

Despite this sacred well now being covered over, there is surely a case to be made here for it to be restored back to its former glory, for all to visit and see. Local historians, pagans and Christians alike — join forces and gerrit sorted!

References:

MacKinlay, James M., Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs, William Hodge: Glasgow 1893.
Mitchell, Arthur (ed.), Geographical Collections Relating to Scotland Made by Walter Macfarlane – volume 2, T. & A. Constable: Edinburgh 1906.
Robertson, William, Historic Ayrshire; Being a Collection of Historical Works Treating of the County of Ayr, Thomson Brothers: Edinburgh 1891.
Walker, J. Russel, “‘Holy Wells’ in Scotland,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol.17 (New Series, volume 5), 1883.

Acknowledgements: The map accompanying this site profile is Reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland.

Lour Fort, Drumelzier, Peeblesshire

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Cup-Marked Stone (lost): OS Grid Reference – NT 179 356

Archaeology & History

In Sir George Douglas’ (1899) brief sketch of prehistoric remains in Peeeblesshire, he described coming across a petroglyph somewhere near the top of the Iron Age hillfort east of Stobo Castle, near Drumelzier (King Arthur country). He told that,

“on a flat stone lying on the slope of the fort at Lour, are two “cups,” measuring 2¾ inches in diameter and an inch in depth, and exhibiting perfect symmetry in their form and position on the stone: they have been thought to be genuine examples of “rock-markings”.”

The carving hasn’t been seen since and it’s presumed that vegetation has covered the stone. (the grid-reference for this site is an approximation)

References:

Douglas, Sir George, A History of the Border Counties: Roxburgh, Selkirk, Peebles, W. Blackwood: Edinburgh 1899.

Soonhope, Peebles, Peeblesshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone (lost): OS Grid Reference – NT 269 419

Also Known as:

Kittlegairy Burn

Archaeology & History

An apparently isolated cup-and-ring stone was found on the hills north of Peebles at the end of the 19th century by the renowned Scottish megalith explorer, Fred Coles. (1899) He was having a look at some of the hillforts in the area and—as some of us tend to do—he began meandering off-track, down streams, through bogs and as a result came across the carving that’s illustrated here. It’s subsequently become “lost” in the hills, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to locate, as the description he gave of its whereabouts is a pretty good one. He told us:

“A very little over one mile and a quarter up the valley, measuring from the road at Kerfield Cottage, a tiny rivulet called Kittlegairy Burn trickles down from the SE into the main stream. On the hill to its east, and about 450 feet higher, are the remains of a fort, one of a series of three crowning prominent heights along this side of the valley. Down the main stream from Kittlegairy Burn is a large ruined sheep-shelter called Soonhope. Nearly midway between these two points a deep curve has been hollowed out of the E. bank; and, at the foot of this rather high gravel bank, half immersed in the stream, lies the block of stone with the cup-and ring-marks. They were discovered, 14th September 1896, by my daughter, Helen, on crossing the stream; and we at once proceeded to make a measured drawing, a reproduction of which is given here…. The depth of the rings in proportion to their width is the one most noticeable feature; next, the extreme thinness of the intervening ‘neck’; but, on a minute and careful examination of the nature of the stone itself, taking into consideration that its angularity and sharpness of edge and the absence of moss or even of confervoid growths on its surfaces went against the possibility of its being truly waterworn.”

The rock had obviously fallen from its original position above the burn. Today, the entire area where this stone exists has been covered by a huge forestry plantation, but if any rock art fanatics from the Peebles area get bored one day and have nothing to do…..

References:

Coles, Fred, “Notices of the Discovery of a Cist and Urns at Juniper Green, and of a Cist at the Cunninghar, Tillicoultry, and of some Undescribed Cup-marked Stones’, in Proceedings Society Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 33, 1899.
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 cup-and-ring marks and similar sculptures of Scotland: a survey of the southern Counties – part 2,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 100, 1969.
Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Southern Scotland, BAR: Oxford 1981.

Harelawside, Grantshouse, Berwickshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone (removed): OS Grid Reference – NT 807 659

Archaeology & History

A carving that no longer exists in its place of origin, but can now be seen in the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh. It was discovered by a Mr James Craw (1931), who gave us the following account of his find:

“In 1910 my attention was attracted by some markings on a boulder on the top of a field wall, ¼-mile NNW of Grant’s House church and at an elevation of some 550 feet above sea level. The stone was a rounded and somewhat flattened slab of greenstone, measuring 22 inches by 17 inches by 4 inches… It bore a small cup ½-inch in diameter, surrounded by two rings of shallow incision, the outer being 3 inches in diameter. From the cup a duct, partly natural, led across the stone, and another cup, without rings, had also a short duct. Adjacent to these markings was a curious grid design of shallow lines, a series of parallel lines ¼-inch apart, being crossed at right angles by lines 2½ inches apart.”

Across a section of the stone there may also be a curving pecked line which Craw didn’t appear to notice. The parallel lines would appear to have quite separate origins, with those running below the cup-and-ring seeming to be ancient, whereas the others have the appearance of being cut with metal tools and seem much more like modern scarring.

Shortly after finding the stone, Mr Craw took the petroglyph to the National Museum in Edinburgh, where he was told that they didn’t think it “as being of early workmanship, the cups and rings being of much smaller proportions than the typical markings of the Bronze Age and the grid design having no known parallel.” They were wrong on both accounts of course, although I for one still remained unconvinced by one set of parallel lines that run along to the edge of the stone. That said, there are similar carvings of parallel lines at the impressive Traprain Law 15 miles northwest of here, so I may be wrong.

The wall in which this carving was found was obviously not its place of origin. It most likely came from one of the cairns that was reported by J. Hardy to have been destroyed in this field in 1882.

References:

Craw, James H., “An Inscribed Boulder from Grants House,” in History of Berwickshire Naturalists Club, volume 27, 1931.
Edwards, Arthur J.H., “Rock Sculpturings on Traprain Law,” in Proceedings Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 69, 1935.
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 cup-and-ring marks and similar sculptures of Scotland: a survey of the southern Counties – part 2,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 100, 1969.
Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Southern Scotland, BAR: Oxford 1981.

Kirktonhill, Channelkirk, Berwickshire

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Stone Circle (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – NT 474 548

Archaeology & History

Included in Aubrey Burl’s (1976) first gazetteer, without comment, the site was subsequently added to John Barnatt’s (1989) magnum opus. He tells that in the 19th century, “early Ordnance Survey records…note a destroyed stone circle” here, but draws a somewhat sceptical opinion of its very existence as “the Ordnance Survey frequently made mistaken interpretations in the 19th century and hence this should be treated with caution.”

Despite this, early local historians refer to the site, albeit in the past tense. The first would seem to have been Walter Elliot (1869) in his address to the respected Berwickshire Naturalists Club. Some members of this group had visited a number of ancient sites the previous year:

“A camp above Channel Kirk was also indicated, near which a stone circle formerly existed, but it has been destroyed and the materials used for building dykes within the last five or six years.”

The “camp” was an old Roman one which has itself been almost completely destroyed, despite it still being shown on modern OS-maps.

The circle was mentioned in passing in Mr Thomson’s (1902) huge work on his descriptions of the many local hillforts. Close to one at Kirktonhill known as the Roman or Agricola’s Camp, “forty years ago, there was said to have been a stone circle.” This was reiterated in Craw’s (1920) survey of prehistoric monuments in Berwickshire.

Perhaps the most curious omission is in Mr Allan’s (1900) huge survey on Channelkirk parish. His description of the Roman camp was considerable, but he made no mention of an adjoining circle. The best we got from him was a vague allusion about some ancient pre-christian site not far from the church, when he wrote:

“Whether or not some rude form of a place of worship might then exist on the spot where now a church has stood for so long it were rash to assert, but there are certain indications that some particular place, specially marked as consecrated to religious rites, was then a local possession.”

(it should be noted that the Canmore entry for this site has its location at the prehistoric camp due west of Kirktonhill, which is incorrect)

References:

Allan, Archibald, History of Channelkirk, J. Thin: Edinburgh 1900.
Barnatt, John, Stone Circles of Britain – volume 2, BAR: Oxford 1989.
Burl, Aubrey, The Stone Circles of British Isles, Yale University Press 1976.
Burl, Aubrey, The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, Yale University Press 2000.
Craw, J H., “Early types of burial in Berwickshire“, in History Berwickshire Naturalists Club, volume 24, 1920.
Elliot, Walter, “Anniversary Address Delivered at Berwick on the 30th of September, 1869,” in History Berwickshire Naturalists Club, volume 6, 1869-72.
Thomson, A., Lauder and Lauderdale, Craighead Brothers: Galashiels 1902.

Lauder Common, Lauder, Berwickshire

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Cairn: OS Grid Reference – NT 49340 46162

Getting Here

Take the B6362 high road between Lauder and Stow and, regardless of which direction you’re coming from, when you reach the top heights of the moorland road with views all around, you need to keep your eyes peeled for where a dirt-track runs south and, diagonally across the road on its north side, is a dirt-track-cum-parking-spot (if you came from Stow, you should’ve already noticed the cairn on the skyline on your way up). There’s a hut circle in the heather by the parking spot. From here, just walk over the heather nearly 300 yards north. Y’ can’t really miss it.

Archaeology & History

The first thing that you see as you approach here is a modern cairn which is sat upon the more ancient and completely overgrown one. You can’t really see the “ancient” section of it until you walk round to its more northern side, where you’ll then notice how the new cairn has been built on top of a small but artificial rise in the ground, about ten yards across. This is the original ancient cairn. Sections of the ground have come away on its southern side, revealing a scattered mass of loose stones. It doesn’t seem to have been excavated but has all the hallmarks of being typically Bronze Age by the look of it. Of particular note is the superb view from here, not least towards the legendary Fairyland of the Eildon Hills, standing out clearly about 10 miles to the south…

Lauder Common, Lauder, Berwickshire

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Hut Circle: OS Grid Reference – NT 49490 45962

Getting Here

Take the B6362 high road between Lauder and Stow and, regardless of which direction you’re coming from, when you reach the top heights of the moorland road with views all around, you need to keep your eyes peeled for where a dirt-track runs south and, diagonally across the road on its north side, is a dirt-track-cum-parking-spot. Park up here and walk 10 yards or so into the heather on your left. You’re probably stood at the side of it!

Archaeology & History

A very distinct, but isolated hut circle can be seen here when the heather is short. It’s most notable by seeing the slightly elevated circular rise in the ground with the rough ring of long grasses in the middle of it. To be honest, unless you’re a mad archaeo-geek into these sort of things, it’s not gonna send a rush of blood to your head.

Probably constructed in the Bronze Age, it’s a plain little thing about six yards across, making it suitable for perhaps just a couple of folk to have lived in. The overgrown walling is very low (between 12-18 inches high) and about a yard wide all the way round it. The main thing that you’ll get from this place is not only the sense of isolation, but the beautiful view…

Drumderg (2), Tullymurdoch, Perthshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – NO 18523 54950

Getting Here

Two ways: i) up the A93 road from Blairgowrie, after 5 miles turn right at the Bridge of Cally and up Glen Shee. After another 3½ miles, keep your eyes peeled for the tiny road on the right signposted to the Drumturk Cheese farmshop. Go up this long tiny winding road for a mile up to the cheese place and keep on this road for another 2¼ miles where you can park up near the entrance to the huge wind-farm; or – (ii) from Alyth, go up the long winding tiny Bamff Road and keep to the signposts for Bridge of Cally Glen Shee until, after about 4 miles, you reach the entrance to the windfarm. Walk up the track to the windmills, bearing right at the first junction, then right again at the next one. From here, shortly before the second windmill, walk down into the moor for nearly 200 yards. It’s quite a large stone.

Archaeology & History

This is impressive. Very impressive! Found within a huge mass of other prehistoric sites in the Forest of Alyth, its only known petroglyphic bedfellows—Drumderg (1) nearly 500 yards yards south, and Drumderg (3) 120 yards north—have nothing on this one! Where the others have basic cupmarks, this bears a series of multiple interlocking cup-and-ring designs, some with one ring, others with two, and one with four, albeit incomplete rings.

The design is etched onto the sloping face of a curved triangular ‘female’ stone. An eroded cutting all but separates the two main components of the design, but this cut has within it a distinct singular cup-and-ring almost linking each side together. On one side (which is near the middle of the stone) we have a complex series of multiple cup-and-rings that seem to be sequentially moving and (almost) growing into each other in some form of organic pattern. The bottom of this growth begins from a standard cup-and-ring and runs immediately into a vulva-like slit of a cup-mark surrounded by four incomplete rings. As the photos show, this keeps climbing upwards.

A more simplistic basic design has been etched onto the more western side of the stone, on the other side of the eroded cutting. Two of the cup-marks have rings around them, with one of them seeming to give birth to another upward “growth”, but this time comprising merely of a line of more cups, curving ever-so-gently towards the middle of the stone. Along with this there are also cup-marks on the top ridge of the stone; faint carved lines curve and intersect. Movement seems embedded in this fixed non-linear design. That’s my impression anyhow!

The only literary attention given to the carving seems to have been by the Scottish Royal Commission (1990) lads in one of their Perthshire inventories. It’s simple as always, telling basically,

“this heavily weathered cup-and-ring marked boulder lies 150m south of the hut circles… The carvings are on the southwest face of the boulder and comprise: at least four cups surrounded by single rings; two cups surrounded by triple rings; an oval cup measuring 100mm by 70mm surrounded by four rings; and twenty-two plain cups marks, the largest 60mm in diameter.”

If there’s anything extra that we should puzzle over, it’s this: why do we have such an intricate carving here, living in near isolation in the midst of countless other prehistoric remains? The answer, most likely, is that it’s not alone. I highly suspect that others are waiting to be found up here beneath the endless ocean of heather…

References:

Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, North-East Perth: An Archaeological Landscape, HMSO: Edinburgh 1990.

Wheen, Glen Clova, Angus

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Settlement: OS Grid Reference – NO 3661 7044

Getting Here

From Kirriemuir town centre up the B956 Kinnordy Road, turn left where it goes along the B955 road for several miles towards Cortachy, following the same route as if you’re going to the curious Whitehillocks stone circle. Literally two miles (3.2km) along the road past Whitehillocks farmhouse, a large “parking” spot is at the right-hand side of the road. From here, walk along the road for 230 yards and go thru the gate on your left. The first low-rise hut circle is to your immediate right; and from here, meander along the track ahead of you, keeping your eyes peeled…

Archaeology & History

Despite being initially difficult to make out (as the photos here indicate), once your eyes have adjusted to the landscape morphology, you realise what an impressive prehistoric complex you’re wandering through. Saying that, it’s primarily a site that’s gonna be of interest to antiquarians, archaeologists and historians, as this is a settlement you’re looking at, lacking in megaliths, petroglyphs and similar ritual sites.

First enclosure, through the gate on your right

The first site that you’ll probably notice is visible from the road—but it’s not the first part of the settlement that you’ll pass. Immediately through the gate (as I’ve said) is the embanked rise of earth—only one or two feet high—making up the first notable hut circle (NO 36612 70453), measuring roughly 15 yards across. The shape and form of this circle typifies the others in the arena ahead of you, so that once you’ve made yourself aware of what this one looks like, you’ll be able to see the others with greater ease. Another low embanked circle of roughly the same size is just a few yards away at NO 36605 70439.

Straight back onto the track you’ll notice another larger D-shaped enclosure immediately on your left (NO 36622 70406), about 17 yards across; this is accompanied by what looks like a cairn immediately right of the track (NO 36609 70413), but this is actually a much smaller D-shaped enclosure, just right for one or two people.

The small rounded hill in front of you has what may be a circular enclosure on its top, but I wasn’t too sure about it. But looking down from this hill is the most visible of all the structures in the settlement (NO 36580 70307)—and the one I mentioned as being visible from the road. At first it’s a little deceptive in appearance, as you get the impression that the oval of stones (top photo) is what constitutes this hut circle, when in fact this element may be mediaeval in nature as it’s been built on top of an earlier Iron Age (?) enclosure. You can barely see this earlier form at ground level, so it’s best to walk back up the rounded hillock and cast your gaze back and forth and round the side of the ring of stones. You’ll see, eventually, the shallow overgrown walling of a larger oval-shaped enclosure, measuring eighteen yards across, whose edges start from the bottom of the hillock and arc around to the outer edges of the stone construction.

Back onto the track and further into the meadows, the next hut circle you’ll meet is (keep your eyes peeled) right by the track-side (NO 36573 70230). It has wide embanked walls that are low to the ground and completely overgrown, measuring 15 yards (E-W) by 18 yards (N-S), with what looks to be the original entrance or door on its south-side. A similar large circle exists on the other side of the track a little bit further along (NO 36499 70138).

There’s much more to this settlement, including lengths of walling in the grasslands below the last two circles and where, if you look carefully, you’ll see one of at least two cairns in this area. On the other side of the road are one or two other small hut circles and a much larger construction in the field further down the road, measuring 25 yards in length (NO 36569 70481). This would seem to be the largest of the lot.

The age of this settlement probably covers a considerable period of time: beginning perhaps in the Bronze Age, certainly in the Iron Age and all the way through into the mediaeval period where, all down Glen Clova, remnants of such hamlets still live beneath the soil. This entire arena is bathed in silence, save the wind and call of the birds. Tis a beautiful space to spend a few endless hours…

Whitehillocks Farm, Glen Clova, Angus

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Stone Circle: OS Grid Reference – NO 37095 66958

Getting Here

From Kirriemuir town centre up the B956 Kinnordy Road, turn left where it goes along the B955 road for several miles towards Cortachy. Keep going on the B955 for a few more miles into the quiet beauty of Glen Clova. A third-of-a-mile (0.5km) past Glenarm house, the road splits. Take the right-hand road, which goes down and across the river below. Keep on this road for just over a mile (1.8km) and as you approach the large farmhouse of Whitehillock—about 200 yards before it—keep your eyes very well focused in the field on your left and you’ll see a mass of large fallen stones right up against the other side of the fence. You’ve arrived.

Archaeology & History

A half-mile north of Clach na Brain, or the Stone of the Raven (a stone that was traditionally used to beat woven cloth after it had been washed), we come across this ruined stone circle, which has seen better days. Not shown on any of the early OS-maps, nor found in the standard megalithic catalogues (Barnatt 1989; Burl 2000), its existence seems to have been logged for the first time by some of the Royal Commission doods in 1999, but of late its veracity as a prehistoric site has been questioned as the local farmer alleged it to have been built by his father sometime in the 20th century. It might have been – but if he did, he made a bloody bad job of it! The site doesn’t have that “new” look about it and, unless someone told you that this was a stone circle, you wouldn’t give it a second look! That aside…

The stones have been placed around the edge of a small rise in the land, within which is a scatter of small and reasonably large stones that give the impression of a cairn at its centre. All but one of the stones (the eastern one) is still standing and measures about 3 feet in height. The rest are either laid down or near to collapse and measure between four and six feet in length. Without an excavation of the site, we cannot be certain of its age, but the official records still have it listed as a stone circle. We await further examination…

References:

Dorward, David, The Glens of Angus, Pinkfoor Press: Forfar 2001.