Tag: Strathtay

Craig Hill cluster (3), Kenmore, Perthshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 81307 44419

Getting Here

Craig Hill petroglyph cluster

From Kenmore go east up the steep mountain road towards Glen Quaich, or if you’re coming from Amulree, go west along the same glen.  After 2½ miles (4km) up the Kenmore route (nearly 9 miles on the Amulree route) you’ll reach a small lochan on your left (you’ve got a very small parking spot a coupla hundred yards before the loch).  A gate and stile past the loch takes you east along a track into the moors.  More than a mile on, the track splits, but you need to keep to the left and follow the track along the wallside for another 400 yards or so, where you’ll see a small crag of rocks 100 yards down the slope on your right. That’s your target!

Archaeology & History

The stone in question

One of at least six rocks next to each other that possess cup-and-rings, this is the most notable of the bunch inasmuch as it’s the one that stands out above all the others.  At first sight it doesn’t look impressive: a shallow scatter of nine or ten cup-marks can be seen when the light’s alright, but that’s about it.  This is what George Currie (2005) noticed when he first came across it in 2004, describing it simply as “a boulder with 10 cups” a few yards away from one of it’s fellow petroglyphs (CR19, or the Craig Hill cluster-2 carving).  But there’s much more to it than that.  Unfortunately when we visited here, we weren’t blessed with good daylight, so were unable to get a decent appraisal of the entire design and have most probably missed some elements.

Curious double-ringed eye
General overview of design

On the top sloping surface are  six or seven cup-marks; another two or three are on a secondary lower level of the stone.  Of those on the top, at least two of them have surrounding rings: one with a carved line coming out to the south-east; the other having a more extravagant appearance, surrounded by what looks like a secondary outer “oval”, or eye-shaped design.  It’s unusual.  Other lines intersect these cup-and-rings, but it was difficult to say with any certainty whether they were Nature’s handiwork, or had been modified by humans.  Below these on a slightly lower level are two or three single cup-marks, one of which, close to the edge of the rock, appears to have an incomplete ring round it—but this might have just been a trick of the light.  Another visit is required for a better appraisal…

References:

  1. Currie, George, “Craig Hill (Dull parish): Cup-and-Ring Marked Rocks,”in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, NS Volume 6, 2005.

Acknowledgements:  Huge thanks to Prof Paul Hornby for use of his photos in this site profile; and to Myrna Hurley for getting us up there.  Cheers doods. 😉

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Craig Hill cluster (6), Kenmore, Perthshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 81307 44422

Getting Here

Craig Hill cluster (6) stone

Follow the same directions to reach either the Craig Hill cluster (3), no.4 or no.5 carvings.  Once here, looking at the sloping moorland ahead of you, the elongated stone that’s closest to where the moorland slopes downhill is the one you’re after.  Y’ can’t really miss it!

Archaeology & History

The sixth carving in this small close-knit cluster and, design-wise, the least impressive of the bunch.  There are three distinct cup-marks on the rock: two on its more southern side and one near the middle of the stone.  There may be another two cups, but these may have been part of the curious long, naturally-eroded line running along the length of the stone.  Other man-made elements may have been cut into the stone, but it needs to be seen in perfect low light to tell us one way or the other.

References:

  1. Currie, George, “Craig Hill (Dull parish): Cup-and-Ring Marked Rocks,”in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, NS Volume 6, 2005.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Craig Hill cluster (4), Kenmore, Perthshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 81303 44419

Getting Here

Craig Hill cluster (4) stone

From Kenmore go east up the steep mountain road towards Glen Quaich, or if you’re coming from Amulree, go west along the same glen.  After 2½ miles (4km) up the Kenmore route (nearly 9 miles on the Amulree route) you’ll reach a small lochan on your left (you’ve got a very small parking spot a coupla hundred yards before the loch).  A gate and stile past the loch takes you east along a track into the moors.  More than a mile on, the track splits, but you need to keep to the left and follow the track along the wall-side for another 400 yards or so, where you’ll see a small crag of rocks 100 yards down the slope on your right. Once here, the elongated rock with a “seat” that you can sit in is the stone in question.

Archaeology & History

At first sight this stone doesn’t seem to have anything petroglyphic about it, and—as when we visited the other carvings in this Craig Hill cluster—the weather was grey and overcast, so it was difficult to discern anything at first.  But as we walked round and round inspecting the Craig Hill cluster-5 carving, a glance at this adjacent stone seemed to indicate one or two cup-marks within the curious chair-like aspect of the rock, but we couldn’t initially work out whether they were simple geophysical elements or not.

Very faint cup-&-half ring near the centre
Close-up of the C&R

So we poured water onto the stone in the hope that something might show up.  And the more we walked round and round, bending down, looking from as many angles as possible, not only did we see what looked like several cups, but one of them had a half-ring that curved round what may or may not be a natural cupmark.   You can see it pretty clearly in the attached photos.  In other photos that we took, the faint cup-and-half-ring seems to plays its part in a line of three or four other cups; although in order to ascertain whether these elements are man-made or not, we could do with the help of a good geomorphologist.

Acknowledgements:  Huge thanks to Prof Paul Hornby for use of his photos in this site profile; and to Myrna Hurley for getting us up there.  Cheers doods. 😉

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Tombreck (15), Kenmore, Perthshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 64894 38308

Getting Here

Tombreck (15) carving

Along the A827 Loch Tay road between Morenish and Lawers, take the track uphill where Carie farmhouse and Tombreck are either side of the road. Walk up this track 2-300 yards till you go through the gate just past the sheep-folds on your left.  Ahead of you is a small grassy hillock on your right upon which you’ll find the unimpressive Tombreck-1 carving.  Walk down the grassy-slope to the boggy stream and then up the rounded knoll on the other side, where you’ll find a stone that’s been split in two.  You’re here!

Archaeology & History

This is another unrecorded carving, found amidst this already large petroglyphic cluster on August 9, 2020.  Carved on a stone that’s been spilt in half, three simple cup-marks can be seen on the larger easternmost section, with the lowest of them having a possible short line running towards the cup on the right.  It seems that the right-hand (north) side of the stone has also been cut, but there is no trace of this part of the stone on the ground.  Additionally, there is the possibility that this stone once stood upright, as evidenced by its very worn rounded top and the larger bottom end of the stone being distinctly lower compared to the ground all round it. But this is speculative.

The 3 cups, highlighted
3 cups on the lower stone

Although the rock is close to being on the top of a rounded knoll, giving good visibility both east and west for a few miles along the extensive grassy ridge (where many other petroglyphs exist), the grandeur of Loch Tay  in the glen below is not and could never have been visible from this, or indeed many other carvings on this ridge.  I mention this due to the fact that some students are positing that the existence of so many carvings along here may relate to some sort of deification of Loch Tay.  But here and at many others along this ridge, the idea simply aint valid, unfortunately.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Brae of Cultullich (6), Aberfeldy, Perthshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 8818 4906

Getting Here

X supposedly marks the spot

Out of Aberfeldy, take the A826 road as if you’re going up Glen Cochill.  Not far up, just where the housing of Aberfeldy itself ends and the green fields open up either side of you, keep on the road for a half-mile where you meet a small copse of trees on your left, with a dirt-track that runs down the slope.  Go along the track for 0.8 miles (1.3km), past the Ursa Major Stone and where the track splits, go left past the Quartz Stone and follow the track through the farmyard.  It’s somewhere there – or is supposed to be!

Archaeology & History

On our visit here, we couldn’t locate the cup-and-ring stone that’s described in Sonia Yellowlee’s (2004) regional rock art survey.  She described it, as archaeologists always do, in the briefest manner, telling us simply:

“Leaning against a pile of rubble in the farmyard there is a split boulder bearing eighteen cupmarks, one of which is ringed.”

It may have been destroyed, as we were told by a couple of locals that there used to be “a real miserable sod” living there.  When we visited the place and tried to ask the present farm owner, sadly he wasn’t to be found.  If any rock art explorer manages to locate this seemingly lost cup-and-ring, please let us know – and mebbe send us some photos so that we can add them to this site profile. 😉

References:

  1. Yellowlees, Sonia, Cupmarked Stones in Strathtay, RCHAMS 2004.

Acknowledgements:  Big thanks to the crew – this time being Neens Harris, Paul Hornby & Frank Mercer.  And the stunning resource of Scotland’s 1st edition OS-maps is Reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland. 

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Quartz Stone, Brae of Cultullich, Aberfeldy, Perthshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 88104 49001

Also Known as:

  1. Brae of Cultullich (4)

Getting Here

The cupmarked Quartz Stone

Out of Aberfeldy, take the A826 road as if you’re going up Glen Cochill.  Not far up, just where the housing of Aberfeldy itself ends and the green fields open up either side of you, keep on the road for a half-mile where you meet a small copse of trees on your left, with a dirt-track that runs down the slope.  Go down here and follow the slightly meandering track for 0.8 miles (1.3km), a short distance past the Ursa Major Stone where the track splits.  Take the track to the left and there, less than 100 yards on you’ll hit a large boulder on your left.  That’s it!

Archaeology & History

Not previously recorded, this simple cup-marked stone will probably only be of interest to petroglyph aficionados, or those folk who are into  ‘energies’ at sites.  This latter aspect is due entirely to the carving being etched onto a huge rock, much of which is composed of quartz—which isn’t too unusual in this part of the world.  But that aside…

Looking down at the cups
The cupmarks highlighted

It is one in a group of carvings within a few hundred yards of each other, with its nearest neighbour 20 yards to the north.  That one’s covered in cups—but on this large Quartz Stone, only two of them exist, on the top near the centre.  Just a couple of inches across and half-an-inch deep, they’re pretty clear once you see them.  The raised piece of ground behind the stone is artificial and has variously been described by antiquarians and archaeologist alike, as either a prehistoric dun, or a stone circle.  Whatever it may be, some of it is certainly man-made.  Check it out – and mebbe ask the friendly fat fella who lives nearby and what he thinks.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Ursa Major Stone, Brae of Cultullich, Aberfeldy, Perthshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 87958 49022

Also Known as:

  1. Brae of Cultullich (3)

Getting Here

The stone from the trackside

Out of Aberfeldy, take the A826 road as if you’re going up Glen Cochill.  Not far up, just where the housing of Aberfeldy itself ends and the green fields open up either side of you, keep on the road for a half-mile where you meet a small copse of trees on your left, with a dirt-track that runs down the slope.  Go down the track, bending to the right, then the left and then on for a quarter of a mile until the lines of trees appear either side of you.  Barely 200 yards along, the track swerves slowly to your right, and the field above you slopes uphill.  Keep your eyes peeled at the fencing on your right and you’ll see a stone sloping towards you right by the fence with faint cup-marks on it.  You’ll find it!

Archaeology & History

A truly fascinating cup-marked stone recently uncovered by Paul Hornby on another one of our TNA meanderings. Fascinating because of the curious arrangement of the cups on the stone.  Often, cup-marked stones have little to interest the causal visitor – but this one’s different.  As can be seen quite clearly, the cups are arranged in the shape of the constellation of the Great Bear, or Ursa Major – albeit with an extra ‘star’ in this design.  But it’s damn close!  In all likelihood (he says with his sceptical head on 😉 ), the design is fortuitous when it comes to the Ursa Major.  I know from many years experience how easy it is to see meaningful shapes and designs in the almost entirely abstract British petroglyphs, but the design is very close to the constellation we all got to know when we were kids.

Looking along the stone
Gazing down at Ursa Major

The stone itself slopes upwards at an angle of about 60º, before starting to level out as it rises.  All of the cup-marks have been pecked onto this sloping surface (the vast majority of carvings are found on top of stones).  Altogether, at least twelve faint and shallow cups were exposed when we looked at it—measuring the usual inch to inch-and-half across—but it is likely that more of them are hidden beneath the turf at the top of the stone.  We could discern no rings or other features in the design.

This is just one carving amidst a good cluster of petroglyphs within a few hundred yards of each other (the Quartz Stone being one of the nearest) that are well worth checking out if you like your rock art.  It may also be of interest to astronomy students, or those exploring archaeo-astronomy.

References:

  1. Yellowlees, Sonia, Cupmarked Stones in Strathtay, RCHAMS 2004.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Cupar Stone Circle, St. Martin’s, Perthshire

megalithix

Stone Circle (ruins):  OS Grid Reference – NO 15958 31227

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 28632

Getting Here

The stone circle on 1867 map

Follow the same directions as if you’re visiting the Witches Stone of St. Martin’s.  On the way up the long dirt-track, just where the track has levelled out above the slope, keep your eyes peeled on the left (west) for a line of large long boulders on the other side of the barbed-wire fence, laid down, just at the edge of the field.  That’s what’s left of the place!

Archaeology & History

This site is in a sad state of affairs and no discernible ‘stone circle’ of any form can be seen here.  The stones that constituted the megalithic ring were uprooted and dumped at the side of the huge field sometime in the latter-half of the 20th century.  The site is shown clearly on the early OS-maps but at some point in more recent years, the land-owner here (I presume) uprooted the stones and dumped them at the field-side, where they remain. Not good.

Cupar Stones from the track

One of the stones here bore the curious name ‘Cupar’, which probably relates to it being a place where criminal trials were held, or justice dispensed. (Grant 1952)  Traditions such as this were enacted at other megalithic rings and ancient sites in earlier times.

The first mention of the circle I can find is in the old Name Book of 1865, which informs us:

“Three large boulders set up edgeways, and part of a circular earthen bank.  There is no local tradition regarding the stones but the Rev Park believes them to be the remains of a Druidical Temple. The name Cupar Stone is not well known locally but still appears on the estate map.”

Cupar Stones at field-edge

It originally stood on the edge of the large flat plateau, just at the point where the land slopes down to the south, with the curious Witches Stone of MacBeth on the same level plateau just over 400 yards to the north.  This small monolith may have been a deliberate outlier from the ring, perhaps relating to the calendrical airt of death (the direction ‘north’ commonly denotes Death in pre-christian cultural cosmologies).  But we know little else about the ring.  In Margaret Stewart’s (1965) notes about the site, she indicated that some of the stones were still standing when she saw them, saying how the “largest remaining stones are to the south and west.”  They’re not anymore!

Postulating it as a possible ‘four-poster’ stone circle (a dubious one, he said), Aubrey Burl (1988) told us:

“In the south corner of a partly cleared wood…there are three large stones, two of them fallen. They are in a roughly straight line running NNE-SSW.  Nearby is a fourth prostrate stone in a boundary wall.  Stewart (1965:21) suggested that they had once formed a ring approximately 24ft 6in (7.5m) in diameter. Different opinions have been that if there had been a circle, it was probably larger.”

In light of the near-complete destruction of the Cupar stone circle, I feel that note should be made of a somewhat worrying trend, not only here, but many other prehistoric sites in the country.  In the site profile Canmore has given the Cupar stone circle, its destruction and vandalism has been termed “agricultural improvement”, as if to sound ‘acceptable’ and that it’s OK to destroy stone circles – which it plainly is not!  If you or I were to do such a thing, we’d be arrested!  We need to make sure that, as individuals and organizations, we treat what some term “agricultural improvement” for what it is: vandalism (usually by rich tory land-owners who give back-handers, or similar things, to make sure the official paperwork looks OK).  I know a lot of archaeologists agree with this too, but cannot speak out for fear of losing their jobs.

References:

  1. Barnatt, John, Stone Circles of Britain (2 volumes), BAR: Oxford 1989.
  2. Burl, Aubrey,  The Stone Circles of the British Isles, Yale: London 1976.
  3. Burl, Aubrey, Four Posters: Bronze Age Stone Circles of Western Europe, BAR 195: Oxford 1988.
  4. Burl, Aubrey, The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, Yale University Press 2000.
  5. Grant, William & Murison, David D., The Scottish National Dictionary – volume 3, SNDA: Edinburgh 1952.
  6. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments Scotland, South-east Perth: An Archaeological Landscape. RCHAMS: Edinburgh 1994.
  7. Stewart, Margaret E.C., “Excavation of a Circle of Standing Stones at Sandy Road, Scone, Perthshire“, in Transactions & Proceedings Perthshire Society Natural Science, volume 11, 1965.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Aikenhead Farm, Blairgowrie, Perthshire

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Cup-and Ring Stone (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – NO 143 430

Archaeology & History

In John MacDonald’s History of Blairgowrie (1899), he describes a number of the prehistoric sites in the neighbourhood, including the cup-marked standing stone at nearby Glenballoch. However, one petroglyph that seems to have escaped the attention of all previous surveys was, “one unearthed in 1897 at Aikenhead,” southeast of Blairgowrie.  Mr MacDonald described it as possessing “a large number” of cup markings “of various sizes.” But even in his day he reported that the carving had, “unfortunately, been destroyed.”

I can find no other references to this site.  Is anyone aware of any, or know anything more about this lost stone?

References:

  1.  MacDonald, John A.R., The History of Blairgowrie, Advertiser: Blairgowrie 1899.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Dunkeld Park, Dunkeld, Perthshire

megalithix

Standing Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NO 01426 42994

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 27205
  2. Dunkeld House
  3. Pulney Lodge

Getting Here

Dunkeld Park monolith

Take the A923 road through Dunkeld and across the river, making sure that where the road veers sharply to the right as you go out of town, you go the left as the road bends round.  100 yards along, past the trees on your left, fields open up. A few hundred yards along on the left, you’ll note the small standing stone about 50 yards in the field below the wall, getting close to some trees again. That’s the spot!

Archaeology & History

The stone is given only a passing mention in the Royal Commission’s (1994) poor work on the region, describing neither its height nor form and erroneously relating it to what is probably a much earlier series of pit alignments in the same field.  Thankfully we had a better description from the early 20th century antiquarian Fred Cole (1908) who visited and drew the site and who told us:

Standing stone, looking NE
Dunkeld Stone looking north

“This Stone is marked on the Ordnance Map in a field behind the Lodge, at a height above sea-level of 300 feet, and styled “sepulchral.”  In size and character it much resembles the Kilmoraich monolith, and seems to have stood solitary for ages.  It is a roughly oblong slab of schist, set with its longer axis nearly east and west, the north face measuring 4 feet and the south 4 feet 9 inches, and the basal girth about 10 feet 7 inches.  It is 4 feet 9 inches in height.  The grandly-timbered policies of the ducal estate enclose this site on all sides.  In the illustration…the Stone is drawn as seen from the east.”

Close to the walling on the WNW just a few yards away, we see a cluster of small rounded stones and a couple of larger stones, much overgrown, giving the impression that they were field clearance.  There is a possibility that they may have had something to do with the standing stone in earlier times; the small stones being very worn and perhaps being part of a cairn—although there seems little evidence of this in the on-line aerial surveys.  The stone was also mentioned in Elizabeth Stewart’s Dunkeld (1926), where she wrote:

“In the park near Polney Loch, one mile from Dunkeld, is a Standing Stone, quite noticeable from the Highland road. This monolith is one of those styled sepulchral, and is a rough oblong slab of schist, its basal girth being 10 feet 7 inches, and its height 4 feet 9 inches. Mr. Coles, who describes this stone in the “Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries”, supposes it to have been part of a circle. It is not far from the ancient stronghold on King’s Seat.”

References:

  1. Coles, Fred, “Report on Stone Circles Surveyed in Perthshire – Northeastern Section,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, volume 42, 1908.
  2. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, South-East Perth: An Archaeological Landscape, HMSO: Edinburgh 1994.
  3. Stewart, Elizabeth, Dunkeld: An Ancient City, Munro Press 1926.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian