On the moorland road from Dick Hudson’s pub, head east along the Otley Road for more than 1½ miles, past the T-junction right-turn at Intake Gate (to Hawksworth) and just a quarter-mile further on park-up at the roadside (opposite Reva Reservoir). Walk (north) thru the gate into the field and after 300 yards through another gate into the next field. From this gate, walk straight north to the Fraggle Rock cup-and-ring stone, then go down the slope NNW for nearly 50 yards and just above the old track you’ll see the edge of this stone peeking out!
Archaeology & History
One of a number of previously unrecorded carvings in these fields, this is a pretty simplistic but unique design. The first thing you’ll notice is at the top-corner of the stone where, like many rocks on these moors, a nicely-worn cup stands out. Erosion obviously…. or so it first seems. This cup-mark has another two by its side, along the top edge of the stone which, again, initially suggested them to be little more than natural. But in rolling back the turf this assumption turns out to be wrong; for, along the west-side of the rock you’ll see a notable pecked groove running down to another cup-mark about twelve inches below, kinking slightly just before it reaches that cup. You can see this in the photo. Now, if we return to the prominent cup-mark at the top corner of the stone, in certain light there seems to be a very faint incomplete ring around it – but we can’t say for certain and it needs to be looked at again in better light.
Cups & line clearly visibleMain carved section
The name given to this carving (thanks to Collette Walsh) comes from the wavy lines that go into the middle of the stone from the long pecked line. These wavy lines are natural, although one portion of them might have been artificially enhanced. It’s difficult to tell one way or the other and we’ll have to wait for the computer boys to assess this particular ingredient. Just above these “waves” is a single eroded cup-mark nearly 2-inch across. And that’s that!
On the A81 road from Aberfoyle to Strathblane, about a mile south of Aberfoyle take the tiny right turn (keep your eyes peeled!) to Gartmore. Along the tiny curving road for exactly 1km (0.61 miles), where the road has straightened out there’s a small dirt-track with a parking spot along it. A few hundred yards along there’s a crossroads of dirt-tracks: walk to your left (SW) for nearly a mile (or exactly 1.5km) keeping your eyes peeled for a small distinct footpath leading down-slope on your left. Walk along this undulating path for just over 200 yards till you go through the gate, then walk immediately to your right down the side of the fence in the field for about 20 yards. Y’ can’t miss it!
Archaeology & History
Blarnaboard (3), NE-SW
Located on the land of the early bards of Gartmore, we could speculate that those early orators told tales of, and from this old stone—but that’s all it would be: dreamy speculation. Instead, passing that aside, the petroglyph itself brings us a feast to drool over!
Made up of four distinct carved sections of almost interconnecting rock, this flat thin line of stone is covered with an impressive array of cups and multiple rings. Running downhill in a northeast to southwest line, it would appear to have been written about for the first time by Lorna Main (1988) who subsequently described it in the usual archaeological shorthand, simply telling that,
“There are at last 28 cups, 3 cup and one ring, 4 cup and two rings, 2 cup and three rings, 1 cup and five rings and 1 cup and seven rings.”
Multiple ringed elementSection 1 overview
…But, as usual, there’s much more to be said of it than that. Of the four sections, we’ll start at the uppermost northeastern section and work down the sloping ridge, looking at the respective symbols as we go. Section 1 has the largest surface area, but isn’t the most decorated of the bunch. Nonetheless, what we find here is impressive. About a dozen single cup-marks of various ages are scattered over the surface in what initially seems to be no recognizable order; these are accompanied by two single cup-and-rings: one of which could be said to be of standard size and form, whilst the other has a much larger and broken ring, near the middle of the rock, about 12 inches across. This larger ring has two or three of the cup-marks incorporated into its outer edges. The most impressive element of Section 1 is the large multiple-ringed design, five in all, radiating outwards or funneling inwards (depending on what was intended) around a central cup. The outer ring of this is incomplete.
Impressive cup & 7 ringsScatter of cups & rings
Section 2 is the most visually impressive of all the Blarnaboard (3) carvings: almost an evolutionary development of what we see on the first part. A 2-dimensional panorama shows off a distinct cup-and-ring close to the edge of the soil, and there’s a somewhat wonky incomplete cup with double-ring below it. A very clear cup-mark to the right of this has another faint incomplete double-ring round it—but this is hard to see. The same cannot be said of the cup with seven concentric rings surrounding it! (the outer two of these are incomplete) As I walked round and round this section, drooling somewhat, it became obvious that a number of well-defined cup-marks had been carved around the outer edges of the rings, deliberately creating an eighth ring comprised purely of cup-marks. It gave me the impression of it representing heavenly bodies revolving around the central Pole Star; but also of it defining the movement of the Moon through the heavens during a calendar year. (the astronomy of my youth still comes through at times!)
Section 3 carvingFaint double cup-and-ring
By comparison, the third and smallest section of Blarnaboard (3) almost pales into insignificance, possessing a mere cup-and-double-ring—and a very faint one at that. From a certain angle it looked like it possessed a third ring, but this was probably more to do with me wanting to see more than there is! Just below this double-ring, a single cup has what might have once been another incomplete ring round it—but we’d need the computer graphic students among you to suss that bit out! You can’t make it out on the photos here, sadly…
Section 4 carvingFaint double-arc, lower cup
The fourth section is the most visually unimpressive of the entire cluster and was probably carved much later than the rest. The poor little fella has just five single cup-marks, with a sixth at the top-corner or northeastern part with what seems to be a small carved double-arc, or partial lozenge, that was started and never finished.
A couple of other exposed sections of stone running a few more yards further down the same line have no carvings on them—but there may well be more to this petroglyph hiding beneath the turf, which covers quite a large area. I have no doubt that other unrecorded carvings exist in close by, but due to excessive forestry plantations all around here, they’ll either be covered over or will have been destroyed. Don’t let this put you off looking for others though!
Cup-and-five-ringsCup-and-seven rings
An interesting feature of this long line of stone is its potential alignment. When we were photographing the site, a local man came over and got chatting with us. He knew of the carving and had been here many times and told us that his wife had looked at this one and found it aligned with another cup-and-ring on the south-side of Blarnaboard farm and another one (officially unrecorded) even further along. I checked this when I got home and found that this long line of petroglyphs did indeed line up with the Blarnaboard farm carving, perfectly. Whether this was intentional and/or possesses an astronomical function, we might never know. The third carving along the line has yet to be located. I must emphasize however, that the relationship between earthfast petroglyphs and alignments is very rare and, where found, is little more than fortuitous. But when we find cup-markings on alignments of standing stones and other prehistoric monuments, the relationship seems to be much more intentional and would have had a specific mythic function.
If y’ follow the fence-line from this carving down to the small burn, on the other side is the much less impressive Blarnaboard (2) cup-marked stone.
Folklore
Prior to Lorna Main’s (1988) short note on this petroglyph, local people had long known about the carving. As late as the 20th century, people with fevers were brought to this stone in the early morning to be cured of the illness. The idea was that medicinal herbs were collected and placed in some of the cup-marks, which were used like a mortar and pestle to prepare the plants. This healing magick, spoken of by some of the old folk in Aberfoyle, was known to them as children, who’d been told of this by their elders and, of course, by the elders before them.
There is also a tradition that some of the stone that makes up the curious moondial (not sundial) that can be seen at the back of the church in Gartmore village nearly a mile to the southeast, originally came from here.
References:
Main, L., “Blarnaboard (Aberfoyle parish), Cup and Ring Marked Outcrop,” in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, 1988.
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.
Anyone who’s going to visit this carving will be doing so as a result of visiting the impressive Blarnaboard (3) cup-and-ring stone, 115 yards (105m) away. From Blarnaboard (3), walk down the slope on your right (west), cross the tiny burn and go round to the other side of the small rocky hawthorn-topped hillock just a few yards in front of you. Fumble about and you’ll find what you’re looking for!
Archaeology & History
It’s possible that there’s more to this carving than meets the eye. On the west-side of this small rocky rise, along a thin elongated raised section in the stone, a gently meandering line of nine deep cups runs roughly northeast to southwest. You can’t really miss them as they average some 2 inches across and 1 inch deep, strongly suggesting that they were cut and reworked over and over for a long period of time.
Line of cups, from aboveRough NE-SW alignment
It was first described in distinct brevity by L. Main (1988) who told that, “over a length of 60cm on a north-east facing outcrop are 9 cup marks.” And, whilst all of the cups are clearly visible, one of them at the edge of the stone has been cut or worked into a natural curved hollow. You’ll see what I mean when you visit the site (it’s pretty clear in the photos).
Beneath the roots and soil there may well be other cup-markings that are still hiding away on this rocky dome. I have no doubt that other unrecorded carvings exist in this area, but due to the excessive forestry plantations all around here, they will be covered over or have been destroyed.
References:
Main, L., “Blarnaboard (Drymen parish), Cup Marked Rock,” in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, 1988.
From Comrie take the B827 road (towards Braco) out of town and where the fields open up on both sides of you, 400 yards along the straight road you’ll see a large bulky stone right by the roadside (it’s the standing stone known as the Roman Stone). Stop here and look on the ground just a couple of yards past the monolith where, amidst the grasses and mosses, you’ll see this small smooth stone (you might have to roll some of the mosses back to see it properly).
Archaeology & History
More than a hundred years ago when John MacPherson (1896) wrote his essay on the history of this area, he described there being “three large stones, supposed to be the remains of a Druidical temple.” He was talking about the Roman Stone here, with its two companions—although only the Roman Stone remains upright today. He noted that one of them, on the ground was “a round, flat boulder” which “bears upon its surface cup-marks arranged in irregular concentric circles.”
This seems to have been the first mention of the carving. Fifteen years later when the great Fred Coles (1911) looked at the same standing stones, he found the adjacent petroglyph to still be in situ, stating that,
“The surface is covered with a group of twenty-two neatly made cups … the majority being about 2 inches in diameter, with a few much smaller. Two cups measure only 1 inch in diameter.”
R.M. Pullar’s 1914 photoFred Coles’ 1911 sketch
A few years after this, members of the Perthshire Natural History Society on an excursion to Glen Artney in May 1914, stopped here to have a look at the same standing stones and they also pointed out that one of the stones “lying on the ground…is remarkable for the numerous cup-marks on its surface.” In truth, it’s not that remarkable compared to some of the other carvings, but it’s still worth checking out when visiting the other sites in the area. Many of the cups that were visible a hundred years back are difficult to make out unless the light is good; and it seems as if some of them have been chipped away, perhaps due to farming activity.
References:
Barclay, W., “Winter Session, 1914-1915,” in Transactions & Proceedings Perthshire Society Natural Science, volume 6, 1919.
Coles, Fred, “Report on Stone Circles in Perthshire, Principally Strathearn,” in Proceedings Society Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 45, 1911.
Hunter, John, Chronicles of Strathearn, David Philips: Crieff 1896.
Mac Pherson, John, “At the Head of Strathearn,” in Hunter’s Chronicles of Strathearn (David Philips: Crieff 1896).
Cup-and-Ring Stone (lost): OS Grid Reference – NO 0654 2296
Archaeology & History
All trace of this carving seems to have gone. It was first recorded by the great Fred Coles (1903) who found it within a small group of stones, but no one has seen it since. Unless it’s been shifted into one of the nearby walls, it may have been destroyed. Coles told us it could be found,
Cole’s 1903 sketch of the carvingStone ‘A’ is the culprit
“at a point 333 yards east of the farm-steadings, where two hedges meet at right angles. Four stones…lie close together. They appear to be all of bastard whinstone. The middle stone, B, has its longer axis ESE and WNW. It is only 3in inches thick. The stones D and C are each 6 inches thick. No marks are to be seen on any of these. But on A is the very distinct sculpturing shown in the illustration…unfortunately not complete, owing to the flaking off of large strips of the weathered lower portion of the slab. There is a strong suggestion of a cist-cover in the shape and size of this stone, which the close proximity of the two other squarer and thinner stones helps to enforce. Though these stones have been known to the tenant for over thirty years, this is, I believe, the first record made of their position and features.”
The records at Canmore have suggested that this lost carving and the missing petroglyph of West Lamberkine (1) nearby are one and the same. This is unlikely. West Lamberkine (1) was described simply as a cup-marked stone, whereas this stone possessed clear identifiable cups and rings. It would be difficult to make such an elementary mistake.
From East Morton, head up the winding Street Lane for just over a mile until, on your right-hand side, you hit the long straight Roman Road, or Ilkley Road as it’s known. Literally 690 yards (0.63km) up, on your left a footpath is signposted. Take the path alongside the wall, through the first gate (note the pile of stones at this gate, which are the remains of the destroyed Bradup stone circle) then keeping on for ⅓-mile till you reach another gate, then 200 yards to the next one where you reach the moorland proper. From here you need to walk through the heather, just over 300 yards southwest where you’ll reach this large rock. Y’ can’t miss it!
Archaeology & History
Looking down at the CnR
Considering the size of this stone, visitors might expect there to be more on it than there actually is; although a large section of it has been quarried off and there might have been more to it in earlier times. A basic cup-and-ring with one or two single cup-marks elsewhere on its surface, the carving was first described by Stuart Feather (1964) following one of his many rambles hereby, when he was checking out the Rivock carvings a short distance to the west (calling it the Rivock 18 stone). He wrote:
S. Feather’s 1964 sketch
“On the eastern edge of the Rivock plateau, about half-a-mile west of the stone circle at Bradup Bridge, is a cup-and-ring marked rock of a pronounced triangular shape. This at present measures 10ft by 8ft and is 3ft high at its western side… At some time in the past it has been quarried, probably to build part of the adjacent gritstone walls. The 8ft side of the rock has quite distinct drill marks visible…
Close-up of the CnR
The rock has…on its sloping surface a very fine cup-and-ring mark, the ring 6in in diameter around a cup 2in deep, all finely executed and well preserved. Running south from this cup-and-ring mark is a level area 3ft long and 5in wide, which ends alongside the ring at one end and at the quarried edge of the rock at the other. This is probably the former position of a fossil which has weathered out and its alignment onto the cup-and-ring may be due to the carving having been deliberately sited in juxtaposition to this very distinct natural feature. Only one other 2in deep cup remains on the surviving original portion of the rock; others may have been quarried away.”
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.
Feather, Stuart, “Mid-Wharfedale Cup-and-Ring Markings – no.18, Rivock”, in Bradford Cartwright Hall Archaeology Bulletin, 9:2, 1964.
Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
Cup-Marked Stones (lost): OS Grid Reference – SE 9657 8840
Archaeology & History
In the autumn of 1848, antiquarian John Tissiman (1850) and his associates took to uncovering two burial mounds amidst a large cluster of them on the eastern edge of West Ayton Moor. This one at Way Hagg was quite a big fella, measuring 36 yards across. When they cut into its northern edge towards the centre, 8-10 feet in, they came across an upright stone, nearly two feet high, on which five cup-marks had been cut. (see sketch, no.2) Slightly beyond this were three other stones (in sketch, nos.1, 3 & 4), each with cup-marks on them, beneath which was a tall urn. Whether or not the carvings had been deliberately positioned to cover the urn, we do not know. Nonetheless, we can be reasonably assured that these petroglyphs had some mythic association with death when they were placed here.
Tissiman gave us the following detailed measurements of the respective carvings:
“1: Nearly even surface. Length, from 16 to 18 inches; breadth, 10 to 20 ditto; depth, 8 to 9 ditto; with large oval hole cut in the centre, 7½ inches long, 4 inches broad, and 3½ inches in depth. On the opposite side are three holes, from 2 to 3 inches in diameter, and from 1 inch to 1½ deep. 2: Uneven surface. Length, 23 inches; breadth, 14 inches; depth, 13 inches; with five holes, from l½ to 3½ inches in diameter, and 1 to 1½ inches in depth. 3: Uneven surface. Length, 33 inches; breadth, 22 inches; depth, 10 inches, with four holes, the largest being 4½ inches in diameter and 3 inches deep; the others, from 1½ inches to 2 inches in diameter, and 1 to 1½ inches deep. 4: Uneven surface. Length, 27 inches; breadth, 23½ inches; depth, 10 inches, with 13 holes, from 1½ inches to 5 inches in diameter, and ¾ of an inch to 3 inches in depth; also three lines at the end of the stone.”
The carvings were included in Brown & Chappell’s (2005) fine survey, but they weren’t able to find out what happened to them after Tissiman’s excavation. They remain lost. If anyone has any information as to where they might be, please let us know.
References:
Brown, Paul & Chappell, Graeme, Prehistoric Rock Art in the North York Moors, Tempus: Stroud 2005.
Tissiman, John, “Report on Excavations in Barrows, in Yorkshire,” in Journal British Archaeological Association, April 1850.
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.
1½ miles out of St Fillans on the A85 road towards Lochearnhead you reach the boating marina by the lochside. 100 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 to the Wester Glentarken (1) and (2) carvings. From here walk straight uphill, direct north, past the pylon and onto the rocky outcrop behind the gorse shrubs. You’re here!
Archaeology & History
Away from the edge of this relatively flat rock surface, hemmed in between three geological scars, this decent petroglyph shows its memory to prying eyes. It was first described by George Currie (2005) as being just “17 cups (and) one pair of cups are linked”, but there are, as usual, more elements to it than that.
Faint cup-&-rings visible
As we can see quite clearly in the photos here, two of the cups possess rings around them. One of the cup-and-rings near the middle of the mass of cups is complete, with a short line running out of it and into the longest of the natural cracks that frame the design and that runs all the way across the surface of the stone. This cup-and-ring plays a part in a rough circle of cup-marks surrounding a central cup, with one of the outer cups possessing a companion just outside the ring. Two cups in this circle are elongated. There is a possibility that the cup-and-ring I’ve mentioned has another line running from it into the cupmark at the centre of the circle.
On the same side of the long natural crack, outside the circle of cups, is another cup with a faint ring around it. Tis difficult to say whether or not this was originally complete, but when we zoom in it’s pretty damn close!
Framed secondary clusterThe carving when dry
On the other side of the long natural crack is a haphazard spread of nine more cup-marks, with at least one of them seeming to possess a very faint incomplete ring around it. You can just make it out in one of the attached photos. From some angles it seems that two other cups may possess fragments of carved rings around them, but more visits are needed in better light before we can say this with any certainty. One of the cups in this cluster is elongated, whilst two other cups in this bunch are conjoined. Another crack to the side of this secondary cluster has one or two more cups cut into it. Altogether we have between 19 and 21 cups on this petroglyph, with rings around several of them. Worth checking out when you visit this neck o’ the woods. And, of course, if you’re a serious rock art researcher, scan the slopes hereby as other carvings yet remain hidden. You can almost feel them breathing…..
References:
Currie, George, “Wester Glentarken, Perth and Kinross (Comrie parish), Cup-marked Rocks,” in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, volume 6, 2005.
An intriguing find, made not too long ago by Jeff Wallbank of Silsden. Simplistic in design, it’s found on a small ridge of rocks adjacent to an old quarry (so there may have been other carvings here in times gone by), rising up immediately south of Haw Farm about 20 yards away, from where you can ask permission of the kind land-owner to have a look at the stone.
It’s pretty basic: consisting of a distinct triangle of three plain cup-marks on one side of a natural crack that runs across a section of the stone. Immediately adjacent and on the other side of this crack, is another singular cup. This appears to have a carved line running from it and possibly an elongated semi-circular element around the cup itself. It’s not too special when compared to the much more ornate petroglyphs further east, but is worth checking out if you’re walking in this gorgeous western edge of Rombalds Moor.
Acknowledgements: HUGE thanks to Sarah Walker, without whose help and permission to use her photos, this site profile could not have been written.
Follow the same directions as if you’re visiting the Gab Woods (1) carving—which you’re probably visiting if you’re checking this one out. Walk south into the middle of the woods and you’ll soon notice the road/houses on the other side of the trees. Once here, staying in the woods, follow the walling down for about 100 yards, keeping your eyes peeled for a reasonably large flat stone about 15 yards from the wall in the trees. If you can’t find it at first, patiently zigzag back and forth until it eventually appears!
Archaeology & History
One of two known petroglyphs in this woodland (there may be more hidden away) that was first found in the 1940s by Dan Cole. The main feature here consists of a cup-mark encircled by two large, well-defined oval-shaped “rings”, a bit like a large eye. From the central cup, a long carved line runs down the gently sloping surface of the stone and, roughly halfway down from the cup-and-ring to the edge of the stone, another carved line cuts across at rough right-angles, giving the carving a slight anthropomorphic (human-like) appearance when looking up the stone. This humanesque figure may have been the intention—though for my part I have to say that I’m slightly skeptical about it. We may never know either way. Several other single cups are on the stone: one to the side of the large “eye” and two or three below the elongated “arms.”
Vague humanesque figureLarge eye-shaped element
An additional, interesting non-petroglyphic feature is the name of the woodland in which the stone resides. In Thomas Wright’s massive dialect work, Gab is a northern dialect word meaning “to talk”, or “idle chatter” (and variants thereof); this is echoed in Blakeborough’s (1911) Yorkshire survey; and Wilkinson’s (1924) local study tells simply it’s “idle talk…able to talk glibly and with much plausibility—a Town Hall Square orator for instance.” This makes the place as something akin to being “the woodland that talks”, “the chattering woods” or “the talking woodland”, etc. You can make up your own mind as to what this might mean… *
References:
Blakeborough, Richard, Wit, Character, Folklore and Customs of the North Riding of Yorkshire, W. Rapp: Saltburn 1911.
Acknowledgements: Huge thanks must go to Peter Murphy for recovering this impressive carving from the archives, and from beneath the carpet of soil and vegetation, so enabling it to see the light of day once again. Also big thanks to the usual culprit of James Elkington, as well as Sarah Walker and Sarah Jackson.
* a Scottish dialect variant of gab relates to the mouth, tongue, taste.
