Follow the same directions as if you’re visiting the Wester Glentarken (1) carving, but some 10-15 yards before reaching it, you’ll notice this smaller rock with a series of curious naturally-eroded features on it.
Archaeology & History
This rounded stone has a series of natural deep cracks and undulating geological features on its surface, some of which look like elongated man-made cup-marks—but they’re not! The only man-made ingredient on this stone is the deep single cup-mark close to the centre of the stone, as you can see in the photo. That’s it—nowt else!
1½ miles out of St Fillans on the A85 road to Lochearnhead you’ll reach the boating marina by the lochside. A hundred yards or so past this, park up. Cross the road and walk 50 yards to your right then follow the dirt-track up into the trees. After ⅓-Mile (0.5km) turn left to the old house on your left and follow the green path around it, then around the right-side of the rocky knoll in front of you. Once you’re on the level ground around the knoll, walk forward for less than 100 yards. Y’ can’t really miss it!
Archaeology & History
4 of the 5 main cups
A simple design, but a clear one, of four deep cup-marks which can be seen on the eastern side of the stone, with a solitary one—much more faint—just over the rise on the more western section of the rock.
There are a number of other large sections of rock around the knoll with what appear to be cup-markings of various forms, but apart from perhaps one or two exceptions, the vast majority of them—as Currie (2005) also noted—seem to be natural.
References:
Currie, George, “Wester Glentarken, Perth and Kinross (Comrie parish), cup-marked rocks,” in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, vol. 6, 2005.
Unless the heather’s been burnt back, this takes a bitta finding. Direction-wise, the easiest is from the moorland road above Menston. Go up Moor Lane and then turn right along Hillings Lane. 350 yards on is a dirt-track on your right marked as Public Footpath. Walk up here for two-thirds of a mile—going past where the track goes left to the Shooting Range—to where the track splits. Bear left and after 250 yards you reach a fence on your left where the moorland proper begins. Follow this fence SW for 300 yards until it does a right angle turn. Just before this, you’ll see a large worn overgrown trackway or path running north into the moorland. Walk up here for nearly 100 yards and look around. Best o’ luck!
Archaeology & History
Western arc of earth & stone
Shown on the 1851 OS-map adjacent to the long prehistoric trackway that runs past Roms Law, the Great Skirtful and other prehistoric sites, the antiquarian wanderings of Forrest & Grainge (1868) came past here and, although didn’t mention the Craven Hall cairns directly, they did write of “a group of barrows” hereabouts, and this may have been one of them. James Wardell (1869) gave an even more fleeting skip, only mentioning “pit dwellings” hereby. A little closer to certainty was the literary attention Collyer & Turner’s (1885) pen gave, where they described, “near the adjoining old trackway, which runs from East to West, will be seen a small barrow”—but this could be either of the Craven Hill sites. And the usually brilliant Harry Speight (1900) gave the place only more brevity….
Structurally similar to Roms Law nearly ¾-mile northwest of here, this little-known and much denuded prehistoric tomb has seen better days. It is barely visible even when the heather’s low—and when we visited recently, the heather was indeed low but, as the photos here indicate, it’s troublesome to see. It’s better, of course, with the naked eye.
Highlighted ring cairn, looking NEHighlighted ring cairn, looking SE
It’s the most easterly cairn in the large Bronze Age necropolis (burial ground) on Hawksworth Moor. Measuring some 12 yards across and roughly circular in form, the ring is comprised mainly of many small stones compacted with peat, creating a raised embankment barely two feet high above the heath and about a yard across on average. A number of larger stones can be seen when you walk around the ring, but they don’t appear to have any uniformity in layout such as found at the more traditional stone circles. However, only an excavation will tell us if there was ever any deliberate positioning of these larger stones. It would also tell us if there was ever a burial or cremation here, but the interior of the ring has been dug out, seemingly a century or two ago…
References:
Collyer, Robert & Turner, J.H., Ilkley: Ancient and Modern, William Walker: Otley 1885.
Faull, M.L. & Moorhouse, S.A. (eds.), West Yorkshire: An Archaeological Guide to AD 1500 – volume 1, WYMCC: Wakefield 1981.
Forrest, C. & Grainge, William, A Ramble on Rumbald’s Moor, among the Rocks, Idols and Altars of the Ancient Druids in the Spring of 1869, H. Kelly: Wakefield 1868.
Speight, Harry, Upper Wharfedale, Elliott Stock: London 1900.
Wardell, James, Historical Notes of Ilkley, Rombald’s Moor, Baildon Common, and other Matters of the British and Roman Periods, Joseph Dodgson: Leeds 1869.
Tumulus (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – SE 234 336
Archaeology & History
Today, Hough Hill has almost completely given way to modern housing; but in bygone centuries, this hilltop once housed a prehistoric burial mound—albeit an inconspicuous one. It was mentioned briefly in Faull & Morehouse’s (1981) magnum opus, but we know very little of its overall appearance and stature. Its existence was recorded posthumously thanks to the antiquarian John Holmes, without whose notes it would have been lost to history.
During quarrying operations at Hough Hill in December 1879, an ornamental urn was found,
“filled with calcined bones (that) was placed on a dish shaped hollow, some two or three feet deep, with charcoal and burnt earth.”
Holmes compared some markings that were upon this urn to one that was uncovered in Acrehowe Hill above Baildon by J.N.M. Coll in 1845. Unfortunately the Hough Hill urn was broken into fragments shortly after being uncovered. All remains of the burial mound have been completely destroyed.
References:
Faull, M.L. & Moorhouse, S.A. (eds.), West Yorkshire: An Archaeological Guide to AD 1500– volume 1, WYMCC: Wakefield 1981.
Holmes. John, “A Sketch of the Pre-Historic Remains of Rombalds Moor,” in Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological & Polytechnic Society, volume 9, 1886.
Wardell, James, Historical Notes of Ilkley, Rombald’s Moor, Baildon Common, and other Matters of the British and Roman Periods, Joseph Dodgson: Leeds 1869. (2nd edition 1881).
Take the directions to the Balnasuim (1) carving, then up and across to Balnasuim (2). From here, walk diagonally uphill to your right (NE) for about 150 yards and head to the the very top-corner of this field. You’ll see the large embedded rock emerging out of the ground, just ten yards away from a small stream. You’re there!
Archaeology & History
As Officer Barbrady likes to put it, “move along people, there’s nothing to see here!“—and that’s really the case with this, another of Balnasuim’s petroglyphs. This lichen-encrusted rock has just two simple cup-marks, barely visible when the daylight’s poor – and it’s almost as disappointing when the day is good! In all honesty, in wilfully visiting this site and its geographical compatriots, I can sincerely understand how people can tell us petroglyph-nuts that we “really have nothing better to do” with our time!
From Killin, take the A827 road to Kenmore. 6 miles along, on your right, is the track down to the Big Shed at Tombreck. Keep on the A827 for exactly ⅓-mile (0.53km), and opposite the driveway to Craggantoul is a small parking spot. A few yards on the road, over the burn, go thru the gate on your left. From here, follow the straight line of walling uphill and 20 yards before reaching Cragganester (9) carving, follow the line of fencing right (ENE) until you hit the wall more than 350 yards away. From here, follow the walling uphlil 350 yards where it turns a right-angle west. About 50 yards east of the right-angled wall, look around…
Archaeology & History
3 faint cups in an arc
As with the other carvings up here at Balnasuim, there is little to look at unless you’re one of the ardent petroglyphic crazies! On this small rounded stone, cushioned beneath the skylines of Ben Lawers and Meall Odhar, are at least three cupmarks in a rough arc running from the northern part of the stone, with the most pronounced of them being close to the northern edge of the rock. The others are very shallow and can be difficult to make out in poor sunlight. A possible fourth cupmark with a short protruding line may exist close to the SE part of the stone. The Balnasuim (2) carving is 305 yards (279m) to the NE.
From Killin, take the A827 road to Kenmore. 6 miles along, on your right, is the track down to the Big Shed at Tombreck. Keep on the A827 for exactly ⅓-mile (0.53km), and opposite the driveway to Craggantoul is a small parking spot. A few yards on the road, over the burn, go thru the gate on your left. From here, follow the straight line of walling up past Cragganester (9) carving, following the burn uphill parallel to the copse of trees until, after about 800 yards, you reach the wall. From here, walk towards the rounded hill of Meall Odhar and, after about 450 yards, you’ll notice it meets a line of walling that runs downhill. Keep walking along, past this, but after 150 yards, go into the field on your right and walk downhill for about 100 yards. Look around!
Archaeology & History
Despite the climb, plus its description as a ‘cup-and-ring’ stone, this petroglyph is somewhat of a disappointment. An elongated stone, half-covered in earth faces south towards Loch Tay and the mountains across, with a series of very eroded cup-marks.
Cup-marks on SW sideCup-and-ring on NE side
They are separated into two small groups. At the southwest side of the rock we can see three or four faded cup-marks. The middle of the rock seems devoid of anything, but on its more northeastern side we find four more cups in close attendance to a standard cup-and-ring motif. That’s about it! The Balnasuim (1) carving can be found 305 yards (279m) to the southwest.
Follow the same directions as if you’re visiting the Falls of Monzie (2) carving; but instead of walking off the track to see that particular carving, keep to the track for about another 60 yards then go up the slight slope on your right. The stone is pretty much overgrown, but if you’re patient you’ll find it.
Archaeology & History
It is difficult to say with any certainty whether or not this petroglyphs has previously been reported. A somewhat confusing series of descriptions by several writers would indicate that is has not been recorded; but I’m happy to be shown otherwise… It’s nowt much to look at if truth be had. Heavily eroded by the elements, this elongated flat stone possesses seven very shallow cups, with a possible eighth, as you can see highlighted in the photo.
Chambered Cairn (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – C 003 396
Archaeology & History
In unpublished Notebooks written by one Thomas Fagan during the years 1845-48 (held by the National Archives in Dublin), he wrote how a local man had told him of the existence of “a supposed Druid’s Altar” in Claggan township, but its precise location has never subsequently been established. In Eamon Cody’s (2002) magnum opus he told what little we know about the place, saying,
“It stood on a slight rise adjoining Claggan Upper, the name assigned to a group of houses in the townland. It was reportedly encircled by “a wall or parapet” and consisted of several large upright stones2-4 feet high and arranged in two rows of few feet apart with a pillar at either end.”
The structure had been completely destroyed just a few years before Fagan’s visit to the place and no further information of it has yet been uncovered.
References:
Cody, Eamon, Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland: Volume VI – County Donegal, Duchas: Dublin 2002.
From Skipton head up the B6265 Grassington Road and after a short distance you will reach the Craven Heifer Pub on your left. About ¾-mile past the pub is a small turning on your left called Bog Lane. Go along here for about ¼-mile till you come to a sharp left bend and on the right you will see a gateway with room to park. Once here you’ll notice a sharp-pointed hill—and that’s Sharp Haw! Go through the gate, up the gravel track parallel to the wall on your left for 500 yards. Where the wall ends take the small path on your right and walk up here for ¾-mile where the path splits again. Take the right-hand path for 85 yards and the stone is on the left of the path.
Archaeology & History
Positions of cup-marks
Nowt special to look at, this is merely an elongated earthfast female stone that will be hard to find when the reeds grow high. The design consists of at least three cup-marks, with the most prominent one near the middle of the stone. A second one is shallow and on its northern side, near the middle; whilst the third one on its southern side was uncovered when we peeled back the vegetation; the peck marks are still visible. In the photo to the left I’ve placed numbers below the position of the respective cup-marks. In a cursory meander here, we found no other carvings – but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any!
