Tag: ancient sites

Black Park (3), Callander, Perthshire

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Cairn:  OS Grid Reference – NN 66885 07447

Getting Here

Low-lying Black Park (3)

From Callander head east along the main A84 road and nearly 300 yards past the entrance to the Keltie Bridge caravan park, take the tiny road on your left (north) and barely 100 yards along turn right and go up here for exactly 1 mile.  Walk up the track from here and follow the directions to find the Black Park (1) cairn; and then the nearby small Black Park (2) cairn.  From here you need to walk north-east round the small rounded hillock in front of you, and cross a small burn (stream) up to the next small grassy rise.  Altogether this is about 200 yards from the Black Park (2) cairn.  On this grassy rise lives the Black Park (3) cairn!

Archaeology & History

As with its compatriot Black Park (2) cairn 200 yards southwest, this can be hard to see.  It’s an overgrown small singular cairn (it looks like a tumulus now) of no great note to look at: probably the resting spot of an individual or just a small family.  Measuring some 5-6 yards across and less than a yard high at the most, its easily missed unless you’re really mean to find it. More impressive are the ones on the hill immediately above you to the east.  Head there next!

References:

  1. Royal Commission Ancient & Historical Monuments, Scotland, Braes of Doune: An Archaeological Survey, RCAHMS: Edinburgh 1994.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

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Grey Cairn carving, Kirkmichael, Perthshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NO 10058 57013

Archaeology & History

When the Grey Cairn above Balnabroich, Kirkmichael, was explored in the second-half of the 19th century by John Stuart (1865) and a number of local labourers, they found the floor of the tomb had been paved with a number of large boulders.  Near its centre, along with finding remains of charred wood, they moved some of the rocks and,

“On turning over the stones a circular disc of stone with a hole in the centre was found, as also a small boulder with a cup on its flat face.”

Grey Cairn at sunfall

He made no further remarks about the carving and no intimation that it was removed, so we must presume it is still there, at the botton of the cairn.  Any visitors to the site might want to have a look at the massive scatter of surface stones that make up the cairn to see if any further cup-marks exist on them.  It’s not uncommon to find them on such giant tombs.

Folklore

A very curious folktale was known of the cairn in the 19th century, whose theme is recognized at numerous other prehistoric sites, but the mythic creature involved here is very much different from the ones we’re used to.  Mr Stuart told that,

“The popular belief is that a mermaid is buried beneath it. This mermaid used to throw stones at people who were coming from church at Kirkmichael, and she could only be seen through a hole in the knot of the pine tree.  At last she was chased to the hill at Balnabroch on her flight to the waters of Loch Marech, on the other side of the hill, and there killed, when the Grey Cairn was raised over her.”

References:

  1. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, North-East Perth: An Archaeological Landscape, HMSO: Edinburgh 1990.
  2. Stuart, John, “Account of Excavations in Groups of Cairns, Stone Circles and Hut Circles on Balnabroch, Parish of Kirkmichael, Perthshire,” in Proceedings Society Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 6, 1865.

Acknowledgements:  Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland. 

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

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Black Park (2), Callander, Perthshire

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Cairn:  OS Grid Reference – NN 6672 0735

Getting Here

Black Park (2) cairn

Take the same directions as if you’re going to visit the large Black Park (1) cairn, and from here look down the slight boggy slope to your right (east) and, across the other side of a small burn (stream) you’ll see a slightly raised grassy knoll.  A curved dyke is to its left (west) side.  You’re there!

Archaeology & History

This small cairn, barely two feet high at the most, and five yards across, is deemed as a possible Bronze Age cairn on Canmore and in the Royal Commission (1994) report of the area.  There is certainly a pile of small stones here, but it may be a clearance cairn (I hope I’m wrong).  Only an excavation will tell us for sure.

References:

  1. Royal Commission Ancient & Historical Monuments, Scotland, Braes of Doune: An Archaeological Survey, RCAHMS: Edinburgh 1994.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

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Black Park (1), Callander, Perthshire

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Cairn:  OS Grid Reference – NN 66612 07349

Also Known as:

  1. Black Wood
  2. Sruth Geal

Getting Here

Black Park (1) cairn, looking south

Less than a mile east of Callander on the main A84 road, nearly 300 yards past the entrance to the Keltie Bridge caravan park, take the tiny road on your left (north) and barely 100 yards along turn right and go up here for excatly 1 mile (give or take a few yeards) where  track goes into the forest on your left and you can park-up here.  Walk up the track into the silence for just under a mile where, as the track splits and you kink to the right, a gate appears.  On the other side of the gate, turn immediately left, almost walking back on yourself, just above the curving waters of a burn, through boggy reeds, keeping to the fence-line until, less than 300 yards along, you’ll reach what you’re looking for.

Archaeology & History

Black Park (1), looking W

This reasonably large cairn and its neighbours (Black Park [2], [3], [4] and [5]) would appear to be relatively new discoveries as I can find nothing about it prior to the Royal Commission’s 1994 survey.  They are even absent from Moray MacKay’s (1953) excellent work on the area!  Hence, descriptions of it are scant and visitors to the place are few indeed (we did meet a local who knew about the old tomb, but said that nothing was known about it); but it is, nonetheless, a fine, albeit denuded and very overgrown cairn, living today amidst a quiet mass of reeds and surrounded by boggy ground—so make sure you’ve got your boots on!

Internal line of stonework
Black Park (1), looking SE

At its height, today, it stands less than four feet tall and measures roughly 16 yards across at its widest.  Through one section of the tomb there runs a raised line of stonework that almost looks like internal walling, which may have been where a chamber once existed.  It’s been hollowed out by someone in the not-too-distant past but, as I said, there are no records of such a thing, so whether or not that was a chamber or merely a fortuituous collapse of stone in a straight line, we can’t really say.  Along its more northern edges there seems to be a small raised wall of stone defining its edge, although once again it requires a more discerning examination to work out whether this is part of its original facade, or is a result of some of the stone mass falling to the edges.

Visit the old place and sit with its silence for a while…

References:

  1. Royal Commission Ancient & Historical Monuments, Scotland, Braes of Doune: An Archaeological Survey, RCAHMS: Edinburgh 1994.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

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Cleland Stone, Skipton, North Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 00076 50540

Getting Here

Cleland Stone, Skipton

From near Skipton town centre, at the Cross Keys Inn along Otley Road, go up Short Bank Road all the way to the very top and then into the trees onto the Dales High Way footpath.  Walk up for literally ¼-mile (0.4km) and where the path bends and heads ENE, notice here a footpath that takes you over the wall.  Once on the other side, the path splits with one heading SE and the other roughly alongside the walling to the SW, which is where you need to go.  About 200 yard on, go through the gate into the field and then another 375 yards on you’re into another field (copse of trees in front of you).  Just as you’ve gone into this field, walk immediately left, uphill, by the walling for about 100 yards, over the marshy dip, then head into the field where, about 75 yards in, you’ll see some rocks scattered about…

Archaeology & History

Cleland Stone, looking S

In an area that’s had some considerable quarrying done to it, we’re lucky to find that this carving still exists.  It was rediscovered by Thomas Cleland (hence its name!) in the summer of 2024.  It consists of four distinct cups, with a possible fifth (and maybe more?) on its smooth elongated surface.  The cups, as we can see, are quite deep and unmistakable.  An incomplete ring seems to be around at least one of the cups; and there seems to be a carved straight line running between another two of them.  A simple but distinct design and in a lovely setting gazing cross the Airedale valley from here.

There are very few other carvings in this neck o’ the woods (the Great Laithe Wood carving aint too far away), but the fact that this has been found would suggest that others are probably hiding away in the undergrowth.  Check out the Iron Age Horse Close Hill enclosure while you’re up here too.

Acknowledgements:  A huge thanks to Thomas Cleland, not only for finding the carving, but also for allowing use of his photos in this site profile.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

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Lamancha, Newlands, Peeblesshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NT 200 522

Also Known as:

  1. La Mancha

Archaeology & History

Simpson’s 1867 drawing

This is what I’ve come to term dyslexic cup-and-rings, due simply to the fact that it’s a cup-and-ring stone carving, but the cup in the centre hasn’t been carved out or pecked away.  They’re rare – but for some odd reason, a small cluster of them occurs in this part of lowland Scotland.  The Drumelzier carving 13 miles SSW is one; the Carnwath carving 14 miles west is another; 14 miles to the south, the multiple-ringed carving in the Woodend cairn had no defined pivotal cup; and in Childe & Taylor’s (1938) short piece on the Hawthornden petroglyphs near Roslyn (less than 10 miles northeast), they noted—like Simpson & Thawley (1972) years later—the peculiarity of “the complete absence of cups”, akin to Lamancha’s carved rings. (although we should be cautious about the archiac nature of the Hawthornden carvings)

The carving here was first mentioned by one of the great petroglyphic pioneers James Simpson (1866; 1867):

“A broken slab, about two feet square, covered with very rude double rings and a spiral circle, was found by Mr Mackintosh, at La Mancha, in Peeblesshire, in digging in a bank of gravel.  There were some other large stones near it; none of them marked.  Possibly this stone, therefore, is sepulchral in its character.”

Lamancha carving (G. & A. Ritchie, 1972 )

Eoin MacWhite (1946) was somewhat sceptical of Simpson’s “sepulchral” association, simply due to there being no account of a burial here.  But in Simpson & Thawley’s (1972) survey of passage grave art, they thought the Lamancha carving was from “a possible cist slab.”  We might never know for sure one way or the other.

The carving ended up living in Edinburgh’s National Museum where it should, hopefully, still be on display.  As a result of this, it received the attention of the Royal Commission doods who gave a good description of the design in their Peeblesshire Inventory (1967).  They state that it

“is irregular in shape and has maximum dimensions of 2ft 6in by 1ft 10in; it averages 4in in thickness. The markings, which have all been formed by the pecking technique, occur mainly on one face, the most common symbol being single or double rings. There are four complete double-ring symbols, in which the outer rings measure from 5in to 7in in diameter, and the inner rings from 2in to 4in.  Round the margin of the face there are the broken arcs of five more double-ring symbols and of five single rings and one small V -shaped figure. As well as the ring markings there is a double-spiral, each lobe of which measures about 4in in diameter.  In one lobe the spiral has two and a half turns and in the other only one turn.  In addition, in a space which is otherwise free of  markings, there is an area, about 4in square, heavily pitted with punch-marks measuring one-eighth of an inch across and one-sixteenth of an inch in depth.  A remarkable feature of the stone is that three incomplete single ring symbols have been made on one edge. They have been formed by the same technique and measure 3in across; as in all the other symbols, the grooves themselves  measure about half an inch in width and about one-eighth of an inch in depth.”

References:

  1. Childe, V.G. & Taylor, John, “Rock Scribings at Hawthornden, Midlothian,” in Proceedings Society Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 73, 1938.
  2. McWhite, Eoin, 1946 “A New View on Irish Bronze Age Rock-Scriblings”, in Journal Royal Society Antiquaries, Ireland, vol. 76, 1946.
  3. Morris, Ronald W.B., “The Cup-and-Ring Marks and Similar Sculptures of South-West Scotland,” in Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society, volume 14, 1967.
  4. 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.
  5. Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Southern Scotland, BAR: Oxford 1981.
  6. Ritchie, Graham & Anna, Edinburgh and South-East Scotland, Heinnemann: London 1972.
  7. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments, Scotland, Peeblesshire – volume 1, Aberdeen University Press 1967.
  8. Simpson, D.D.A. & Thawley, J.E., “Single Grave Art in Britain,” in Scottish Archaeological Forum, no.4, 1972.
  9. Simpson, J.Y., “On Ancient Sculpturings of Cups and Concentric Rings,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 6, 1866.
  10. Simpson, James, Archaic Sculpturings of Cups, Circles, etc., Upon Stones and Rocks in Scotland, England and other Countries, Edmonston & Douglas: Edinburgh 1867.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

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Hallyne, Peebles, Peeblesshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone (removed):  OS Grid Reference – NT 1872 4072

Archaeology & History

Included in the standard catalogues by Ronald Morris (1967; 1969), this carving was brought to light fortuitously by the local farmer who, thankfully, recognized its archaeological importance.  Etched into a small flat broken block of stone, he noticed a cup-marking and the remains of a triple-ring around it, with grooves running out from the central cup.  It was described in detail by the Royal Commission (1967) lads in their county survey where they told:

R.W.B. Morris’ 1967 photo

Hallyne carving in Peebles Museum

“During the excavations at the Roman fort at Lyne…in June 1959, a stone bearing cup-and-ring markings was found lying beside the fence that crosses the North Annexe.  According to local information it was found while ploughing in the field on the NE side of the fence.  It is a sandstone block, measuring 1ft 5in by one foot, and with an average thickness of 8in.  It is clearly a mere fragment of what must have been a larger slab, but it is impossible to estimate its original dimensions.  The markings consist of a single well-formed cup, 2in in diameter and three-quarters of an inch in depth, now partly surrounded by the broken arcs of three rings, which, if complete, would measures about 4in, 7in and 10in in diameter respectively.  The rings are all half an inch in width and one eighth of an inch in depth.  From the innermost ring two radial grooves, set one inch apart, extend outwards for a maximum distance of 4in.  They interrupt the two outer rings, which stop short on either side of them, leaving a gap of about half an inch.  The grooves are slightly narrower and shallower than the rings.  The whole symbol has been formed by the pecking technique and punchmarks are still remarkably fresh.  Outside the outermost ring there is a very shallow depression, one inch in diameter, which may be another cup-mark; in addition there are several recent scars caused by the plough.”

It was moved to the museum in Peebles shortly after being found and remains there to this day, apparently.  I’ve not seen it.

References:

  1. Morris, Ronald W.B., “The Cup-and-Ring Marks and Similar Sculptures of South-West Scotland,” in Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society, volume 14, 1967.
  2. 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.
  3. Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Southern Scotland, BAR: Oxford 1981.
  4. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Peeblesshire – volume 1, HMSO: Edinburgh 1967.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

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Woman’s Stone, Kirkmichael, Banffshire

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Legendary Rock (lost):  OS Grid Reference –NJ 010 030

Also Known as:

  1. Cairn Gorm
  2. Canmore ID 15670

Archaeology & History

The exact location of this site seems privy to a select few and has remained that way since its existence appeared in print in the 19th century.  It was first mentioned by Arthur Mitchell (1874) following a holiday that he’d had in the area in the early 1870s.  He’d visited a petroglyph at Laggan with a Mr David Ross and when he returned home received a letter from him that told how,

“he had heard from Mr M’Bain of Auchterblair of two huge granite boulders, situated on a shelving rock over an abyss on the Loch Avon side of Cairngorm, with hand-made cups on them about a foot wide and correspondingly deep.”

They were subsequently visited by Thomas Wise (1884) a few years later, who told how these huge granite boulders were,

“20 feet in height,” upon which “there are four basins, 1 foot, or 1 foot and a-half long, and 6 inches wide at the top, rounding off to 1 inch in the bottom.”

Initially Mr Mitchell (1874) was cautious in associating these carved basins with cup-marked stones—and indeed, we concur with this—but seemed to have changed his opinion when he wrote about them a few years later (Mitchell 1881).  But it’s the folklore attached to this site that intrigued him – and myself…

Folklore

The traditions attached to this site will be recognised by all students of animism and folklore.  Arthur Mitchell (1874) was informed how the carved bowls in the stone helped infertile women and how “sitting on (them) is said to be efficacious in cases of barrenness.” Their importance was highlighted in the fact that there had been “pilgrimages to them undertaken within the memory of people still living.”

This was affirmed by Thomas Wise (1884) who told that,

“They are supposed to be efficacious in barrenness, and people still living remember pilgrims coming to sit upon them for some time, that they might obtain what they wished.  A visit to them was by no means an easy task, as the ascent was difficult, and to sit on them required a steady head, as they are on the brink of a rock overhanging a precipice.  These basins are the “woman’s stone” mentioned by Tennant.  They are supposed to be the resting place or throne of a certain fairy queen; but however efficacious they may have been, they have lost much of their celebrity; and as the shepherd, who acted as guide to the pilgrims, is dead, and has left no successor, they are now rarely visited.”

Does anyone know the whereabouts of this heathen magickal site?  If you happen to find it, see if you can get a good photo or two and let us know on our Facebook group.

References:

  1. Mitchell, Arthur, “Vacation Notes in Cromar, Burghead and Strathspey,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries Scotland, volume 10, 1874.
  2. Mitchell, Arthur, The Past in the Present, Harper: New York 1881.
  3. Wise, Thomas, A., History of Paganism in Caledonia, Trubner: London 1884.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

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The Hagg, Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire

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Tumulus (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – SE 6803 8695

Also Known as:

  1. Robin Hood’s Howl

Archaeology & History

Site on the 1856 OS-map

There once stood a very impressive prehistoric burial mound here, a few hundred yards east of the roadside, just above the wooded valley known curiously as Robin Hood’s Howl.  Highlighted on the 1856 Ordnance Survey map as an elongated structure, it was suggested in McDonnell’s (1963) work to have been a long barrow, measuring roughly 70 feet long by 50 feet across and more than six feet in height.  It was seemingly written about for the first time by William Eastmead (1824) in his lengthy history of the area and was, he told,

“a tumulus of considerable dimensions (that) was lately opened at a place called the Hag, about a mile northwest of Kirkby-Moorside, in which was found an urn… Great numbers of human bones were also dug out…; and from the immense size of it, a great number of bodies appear to have been burnt indiscriminately, and the ashes of some particular person deposited in the urn.”

The urn would seem to have been either lost or destroyed—as has the tumulus.  It was apparently still intact, albeit very denuded, twenty years ago, but has since been ploughed out.

References:

  1. Eastmead, William, Historia Rievallensis: containing the history of Kirkby Moorside, R. Peat: Thirsk 1824.
  2. McDonnell, J. (ed.), History of Helmsley, Rievaulx and District, Stonegate: York 1963.

Acknowledgements:  Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland. 

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

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Cowcliffe Cross, Fartown, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

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Cross:  OS Grid Reference – SE 13949 18935

Getting Here

Lizzi by the cross-base

Nice ‘n easy: from Huddersfield central, take the A641 road north to Brighouse, but barely a half-mile out of town turn left up the Halifax Old Road.  Go on here for nearly a mile, then keep your eyes peeled for the aptly-named South Cross Road on your right.  Go up here all the way to the end where it meets with Cowcliffe Hill Road.  Here, at the junction, right by the roadside at the edge of the wall, is the remains of the old cross-base, all but covered in vegetation.  You’ll see it.

Archaeology & History

The little-known remains of a post-medieval cross base can still be seen, albeit very overgrown, right by the roadside.  The upstanding stone cross that once stood upon it has long since gone (perhaps broken up and built into the wall).  It may have been one of two such crosses relatively close to each other: as this one is found at South Cross Road, there may have been another one at the nearby North Cross Road, but history seems to be silent on the matter.

Top of the cross-base

The cross-base itself has several holes cut into it where the standing stone cross was fixed upright.  Very little seems to be known about this monument.  George Redmonds (2008) told simply that, “the base of a cross survives on Cowcliffe Hill Road, no doubt marking the ancient crossroads. It explains the names North and South Cross Roads.”  He added that, “The base of the cross survives, partly hidden in the undergrowth, and it is the only visible evidence we have of several similar crosses in the township.”

References:

  1. Redmonds, George, Place-Names of Huddersfield, GR Books: Huddersfield 2008.

Acknowledgements:  Huge thanks to Liz Sykes for helping out big-time to uncover the base from beneath the mass of herbage.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

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