NO13NE 16

Gallowhill, Cup And Ring-Markings, NO 167 359, in NMS, Edinburgh (NMAS accession no. IA 26.

A fragment of a cup-marked stone found 'on the public road' at Gallowhill by Mrs Drummond Black of Gallowhill in c. 1896.

The stone was first mentioned by George C. Baxter in PSAS 31, 1896-7, page 290-2.

He wrote:

"It looks not unlike the topmost part of a Standing Stone, the larger under portion of which, it is to be feared, has perished. Is it possible that the stone now found can be part of the famous and long-lost 'Mune-stane' of Cargill? The tradition about it is, that it had on it figurations of the Sun, Moon, and Seven Stars. It is easily conceivable that, whatever the nature of the symbols, the popular idea might attribute that significance to them. This stone stood in a field still known as the Moon-stone Butts, not far from the spot on the public road where this fragment was found. The local belief is that it was buried in that field, though it is easily conceivable, and indeed more credible, that it was only 'slyped' (slipped) to the roadside to be broken up in due time for road metal. In this ancient memorial Sir James Y. Simpson was profoundly interested,and I am locally informed that he had actually made arrangements for having the Moon-stone Butts trenched with a view to its recovery, having obtained the sanction of the proprietor and tenant to the operations, when Death, alas! to soon, as it appears to us, called him away.

It would be interesting indeed if the fragment now shown could be proved a part of that famous stone. In any case, it seems a relic sufficiently remarkable to deserve notice. It is surely only right to add, that the merit of the present discovery is due to Mrs Drummond Black, Gallowhill. She it was who, while the stone breaker was at work, noticed the configurations on the fragment, and, with a curiosity and with that do her credit, interposed to stay the hand of the destroyer and to secure this valuable relic."

NO13NE 17

Newbigging, Alt. names: Gladsfield; Moonbutts, Gladesfield Close, NO 1558 3521; reported by Simpson as Stone B in 1866.

Found by A. Ferguson some time prior to 1867 in Gladesfield, 1000-1200 yards West of Moonbutts field, c. 1/4 mile SE of Gladesfield farm, close to a strip of firwood. The stone was prostrate when found, but was "re-erected" by the tenant in c. 1894.

The following gridrefs are subsequently given in Canmore: 1969: NO 1521 3520 (OS) and 1981: NO 1558 3521 (Barclay)

The stone was last visited by the RCAHMS in June 1989. Canmore states: "Although the stone has been set upright on at least two occasions since its initial discovery, the position of the carvings suggests that, when they were executed, the boulder was recumbent."

NO13NE 18 (NO13NW 9)
Newbigging (Balholmie House) NO 15 35;

Originally found by the schoolmaster of Newbigging, Mr A. Ferguson, in a corner of a field at Newbigging. It was excavated (raised) by Ferguson who saw a corner of the stone just jutted from the earth.

The stone was moved over a considerable distance, to the lawn south of Balholmie House, NO 1473 3620, as mentioned in NMRS-file NO13NW 9 with the same gridref but with a description different of Simpson's one of the Newbigging-A stone. This may be cause by the erosion of the motifs and the large time-bracket of nearly hundred years between the reports (1864/1969).

NO13NE 20

Gallowhill (Gallowhill Wood; East Gallowhill) NO16813604

These stones, first reported by O.G.S. Crawford in 1936 and described in the OS-map as the "Remains of a Stone Circle", have more probably formed at least part of an alignment orientated roughly NNE-SSW.

The northernmost stone (photo foreground) has been split and the southern one lies beneath the modern fence-line, bearing two possible cup-marks and an OS bench-mark.

NO13NE 21

Moonshade NO16153576

According to Mr Simpson in 1867: Two large standing stones, one of them bearing a representation of the moon and seven stars (OS Name Book, 1865) and, according to A. Jervise in 1861, of the same class as the (Pictish) Meigle Stones. Although they were in situ in c. 1793 (Statistical Account) it appears that they were 'purposely buried beyond reach of plough' shortly afterwards.

Mr A. Ferguson failed to find them in the mid-19th century.

RCAHMS in June 1989: The site of these two stones is now an arable field; no visual features were identified. The description of the carvings may suggest a Pictish origin, rather than an explanation as cup-markings.

 

NO13NW 2

Balhomie. Alt. names: Balholmie; Balhomie Cup-Marked Stone, NO 1480 3616, 22 cups.

A cupmarked stone, discovered by A. Ferguson and G.C. Baxter in 1890, lying 'in a little woody den running down the Tay below the farm of Balhomie'. The upper surface bears some 22 cups, but no circles or channels. Another block -with no markings- lies nearby.

NO13NW 9

Balhomie (Balhomie) NO14733620

Canmore: See also NO13NW 2 and NO13NE 18

Information from M.E.C. Stewart: A weathered cup and ring marked stone at NO 1473 3620 (same gridref as NO13NE 18 -rockartuk-), at the corner of the lawn at Balholmie House. It bears 8 cups and 1 cup-and-ring.

This stone is in fact the Newbigging-A stone as reported by Simpson in PSAS 6.

 

1791-99

First Statistical Account of Scotland, Volume 13, 1891-99, footnote on page 536-7:

"Near the village of Cargill may be seen some erect stones of considerable magnitude, having the figure of the moon and stars cut out on them, and are probably the rude remains of Pagan superstition. The corn field where these stones stand is called Moonshade to this day."

1814

According to Simpson, it must have been around this year that the stones were 'dug around and under, and buried'.

1834-45

The above mentioned footnote was repeated in the 2nd Statistical Account of Scotland, Vol. 10, 1834-45, page 1077:

1864-6

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (further abbreviated as PSAS), Volume 6, Appendix, 1864-66, page 059-63

Professor James Young Simpson: On Ancient Sculpturings of Cups and Concentric Rings, &c.

 

Cargill, Perthshire.—In the thirteenth volume of the first Statistical Account of Scotland, a description of the parish of Cargill was published

about fifty years ago. It is therein stated, "Near the village of Cargill may be seen some erect stones of considerable magnitude, having the

figure of the moon and stars cut out on them, and are probably the rude remains of Pagan superstition. The corn field where these stones stand is called Moonshade to this day" (p. 536). The stones thus marked, and standing in Moonshade or Moonbutt's field, were dug around and under, and buried some half century ago in the agricultural improvement of the ground.

Mr Fergusson, the very intelligent schoolmaster of the parish, has repeatedly tried to discover these buried stone relics, but hitherto in vain. But he has been more successful in disinterring other marked and carved stones, in his neighbourhood.

A. In Newbigging, which borders upon the Moonshade fields, he raised a stone, a corner of which jutted from the earth. It is a slab of grey whinstone, three feet six inches in length, two feet one inch in breadth,and seven inches in thickness. Upon one of its faces—as represented in Plate V. fig. 3—are five series of concentric circles and some isolated cups.
The external rings of four of the series of circles run more or less into each other. The radial ducts from two of the largest unite

into a common gutter, which, after running a considerable space, ends in an isolated cup. Two of the circles do not show any radial groove.

B. More lately in Gladesfield, about ten or twelve hundred yards west of the supposed site of the Moonbutts, Mr Fergusson has uncovered a stone still more sculptured. The stone is about five feet in height, and three and a half broad. One side of it is sculptured in the way represented in Plate V. fig. 4. The sculptures consist of a number of scattered isolated cups, of several cups surrounded with circles, and of radial grooves, some of which are connected with a gutter which runs straight along the surface of the stone for a distance of about four feet. Some of the circles are single ; one cup has two, another three, and a fourth has four or five concentric circles drawn around it. One concentric circle has its outer ring passing in its course through three cups; and its radial duct

runs outward to the left, and forms the beginning or end of the long, linear straight groove which passes longitudinally along the face of the stone.

C. About two hundred yards north of the stone (A) is the Brisbane stone, about six feet in length, and three and a half in breadth, with a

cup-marking or two upon its face.

D. Upon a stone, about a hundred yards or more east of the schoolhouse, Mr Fergusson has found a stone with twelve or fifteen cup-marks upon it. The stone was discovered in "a small mound" composed of stones and earth. The mound is about twenty-four feet long, fifteen broad, and three high. Further researches in this mound or barrow may possibly result in the discovery of sepulchral remains, which may prove interesting. Mr Fergusson believes that the stones at Cargill are arranged in a methodical and angulated direction in regard to each other. In their near neighbourhood one or more megalithic circles are reported to have formerly stood.

Plate V.— Figs. 3 and 4 (the lower ones)

Stones from the neighbourhood of the Moonbutts

 

1882

PSAS 16, 1881-82, page 79-143

J. Romilly Allen mentioned the following rock art sites in Perthshire. Cargill is one of them.

 

Gragantol, Cargill, Inchture, Murthly Farm, Killin, Laighwood, Kincairney, Glendelvine, Moncrieffe, Monzie Castle, East Cult, Glenballoeh, Glenliead Farm, Belmont Castle, Pitfour Castle,

 

1884

PSAS 18, 1883-84, page 313-318.

NOTICE OF A CUP AND RING-MARKED STONE, AND OF INCISED STONES RECENTLY DISCOVERED AT CARGILL, AND OF AN INCISED BOULDER AT FOWLIS WESTER. BY ALEXANDER HUTCHESON, F.S.A. SCOT., ARCHITECT, DUNDEE.

A very interesting cup-and ring-marked stone was recently discovered on the farm of Whitefield in the parish of Cargill, tenanted by Mr A. Smith, farmer, and has now been removed by him for preservation to the lawn in front of his house. The stone (fig. 1), is a block of mica schist of an irregular shape, and measures about 3 feet 3 inches in extreme length, varying from 20 inches to 2 feet broad, and about 20

inches thick. The cups are all on the upper side of the stone as it now lies, but there are several well-marked grooves on at least one of the sides and one end. The cups are twenty in number, and vary from 6 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep to 1 inch diameter and J inch deep. Their dimensions respectively are as follows:

Two of the cups are distinctly oval, as if two cups had been run into one. All the cups are tolerably smooth in the bottom, as if partially polished and rounded off on the edges. One of the cups is surrounded by a ring 9 inches in diameter, having four radial lines or grooves, suggesting a rude attempt at the cross and circle symbol, but much to rude to have been an interpolation of Christian times, as has been suggested.

Nearly all the cups are connected by grooves (as shown in fig. 2), only numbers 4, 5, 16, 17, and 18 being isolated; and even in the case of numbers 4 and 5, it may be doubted whether they may not also have been connected.

The surface upon which the cups appear is irregular, and the cups and their connecting grooves, as has been observed in other stones of this class, follow the irregularities of the stone, dipping into the hollows and rising over the protuberances. Other cups than those described may have existed, there being several slight depressions which may be the remains of cups where the stone has been worn down by the weather; but all the markings shown in the drawings are distinctly visible. This is a very interesting example of the cup-marked stones, inasmuch as it exhibits so many of their characteristic symbols, and may be said to testify to their common origin.

The stone was found about a quarter of a mile westward from where it now lies. It had been built into the walls of an old house which was taken down about twenty years since, and it seems to have lain unnoticed by the side of a field until a few weeks ago.

Tradition says it was originally removed from a circle of stones which stood about half a mile to the eastward, but which have now been buried or broken up. It, however, seems very likely that such a weighty stone should have been transported for half a mile merely to serve as a foundation stone for a cottage, when the ground around was capable of supplying as many stones as would be required. The probability is that the stone, when built into the walls of the house, occupied a position not very distant from its original site.

On my visit, Mr A. Fergusson, schoolmaster, Cargill, who has been indefatigable in investigating this class of antiquities in his district, and to whose courtesy I am much indebted, informed me he had discovered a curious incised stone, from which I made the accompanying drawing

(fig. 3). The stone stands in a dyke enclosing a plantation about a mile west from Whitefield, and about 200 yards from the largest of the cupmarked stones figured by Sir James Simpson. It is of whinstone, and measures about 3 feet high above ground, about 2 feet broad, and 10

inches thick. The incisions are all on the western side of the stone, and exhibit an upright rectangular figure having two scrolls which, descending from the upper corners and almost meeting in the centre of the space, curve gracefully' outwards. Beneath these appears a trilobed

ornament; the upper part of which appears to he pointed, and to fit in between the scrolls, and from the outer edges of this ornament, and

possibly connected with it, descend to the base of the rectangle two incisions or lines. These lines with the ornament above present somewhat

the appearance of a draped human figure.

 

To the left of these symbols appears another symbol presenting a small rectangle on the top of an upright shaft. Unfortunately, the stone has been broken at this part, and the figure is incomplete. The incisions are about 1/2 inch deep and 3/4 of an inch wide, or just sufficiently wide and deep to fit the tip of the finger in tracing them out.

Whatever these sculpturings may have been intended to mean, there can, I think, be little doubt that this stone should be referred to that class of symbol stones which seem to occupy an intermediate position between the cup stones on the one hand, and those sculptured stones, of which the Meigle and St Vigean's stones are examples, on the other.

The symbol stones are distinguished by the sculpturings on them being invariably incised and usually confined to one side of the stone, the

figures being in most cases highly conventional. The comb and mirror and the so-called spectacle and sceptre ornaments are examples of the

most common forms of representation. The symbols on the Cargill stone do not, so far as I know, appear on any stone hitherto discovered,

but there are not awanting points of resemblance between it and other stones of the class. The trilobed central ornament in the larger figure

may be an example of the large circle, with, two smaller circles joined on at the sides, which is seen depicted with more or less simplicity of outline on the stones at. Clatt, Kintore, Glamis, &c. (see Sculptured Stones of Scotland, vol. ii.). But in the Cargill stone the upper small circle is pointed. One of the symbol stones, the slab from Strone Shunnamal, Benbeeula, now in the Museum, exhibits a figure presenting, although rather more spread out and reversed, two arms within an oblong terminating in scroll ends, of similar character to those in the Cargill stone.

It may be remarked that the figures on the Cargill stone appear to be less highly conventional in treatment than those in the class of

stones just referred to. A stone at Corrachree, described and figured by Dr Mitchell in the Proceedings of the Society, vol. x., exhibits some

figures new to the symbols ; and if the Cargill stone is to be regarded, as I think it must, as the latest addition to the incised symbol stones, it

will ad yet another variety to the usual figures depicted on these stones.

The parish of Cargill lies about four miles from Coupar-Angus and eight miles from Perth, and abounds in boulders. Four of these, having

cup markings, have been described, and two of them figured by Sir James Simpson. The area of the boulders lies at a general level of

400 feet above the sea (see Ordnance Sheet, one-inch scale, sheet 48).

A large boulder of whinstone lies buried in Mr Fergusson's garden, and shows a deep cut or channel with traces of slighter channels running into it, but without any cups. Similar channelling exists on two large masses of granite now lying apart, but no doubt at one time

forming a very large boulder, part of a group in the parish of Fowlis Wester. These channels are very different from the grooves usually

accompanying cup-markings, as will be seen from a consideration of their measurements and the annexed drawing (fig. 4). The channel starts at the high side, and running transversely across the stone with an average depth of 3 inches and a width of 1 inch, branches of at right angles about the centre of the block, with a channel 4 inches deep and 3 inches wide which gradually deepens and narrows until as it passes over the end of the stone it attains the extraordinary depth of 10 inches, with an average width of 1 1/2 inch.

These grooves are not the result of cracks or rents in the stone,, but are perfectly smooth on the sides and bottom.

Whatever may have been their purpose (if they are artificial), it must have been a labour of no ordinary description to cut such deep grooves

in a granite boulder, and it would be of much interest and value, in a consideration of the subject if any similar channelled boulders known to

exist were measured and recorded.

 

 

RELICS IN PARISHES OF CARGILL, SCONE, AND ST MARTINS. SOME UNRECORDED RELICS IN THE PARISHES OF CARGILL, SCONE, AND ST MARTINS. BY REV. GEORGE C. BAXTER, F.S.A. SCOT.

Last part:

lies in a little woody den running down to the Tay below the farm of Balhomie, Cargill. It is a huge block, prone on the edge of a considerable

precipice. Its upper surface is that on which the cups appear, and they exist to the number of twenty-two. None are large, but all are distinct. They are of the kind which Mr Jolly has mentioned as peculiar depressions which the point of the middle finger would fill.

They seem to form themselves into two definite groups, each containing an almost equal number of cups. There are no circles or channels to be

traced on the stone. Another very large block lies near, and not improbably a circle may once have existed on the spot.

I also show a small celt that was picked up some time ago in a field in the parish of Cargill. It is beautifully polished, and has flattened sides.

It measures about 3 inches in length, and about 2 inches in breadth at its broadest end. The cutting edge is considerably chipped through use.

It possesses the somewhat rare peculiarity, as I think, of being perforated.

I am not quite sure of the kind of stone of which it consists. It has a greenish colour, and resembles felstone.

[This celt has now been presented to the Museum by the author.]

There is no illustration of this stone in the PSAS.

 

1897

PSAS 31 (1896-97) 290-2, Baxter, George C

NOTICE OF A CUP-MARKED STONE RECENTLY FOUND AT GALLOWHILL, PARISH OF CARGILL. BY REV. GEORGE C. BAXTER, F.S.A. SCOT.

 

through which a channel runs upward from the lip of the cup to cup No. 2, through which it appears to continue as channel No. 2 already

mentioned;

(5) of the four cups at the bottom of the stone, the cup at each end of the line has also a channel, that of the left end cup running

upwards on the stone, and that at the right end, a very short one, running towards the right;

(6) above this cup lies yet another cup with

a channel, also running to the right; and a little way to the left of this cup, in the space between the large central cup of the stone and the two middle cups of the group of four, is still another cup, but without any peculiarity attaching to it;

(7) two more cups, standing in the space to the left of channel No. 1, the upper of which is oval (a rare peculiarity) and has a channel attaching into channel No. 1, and the lower of which looks connected with the channel of the left-hand cup of the group of four.

This completes the description of the more conspicuous features of the stone as it exists. In looking at them, one feels a profound curiosity to know what the continuation of these figurations may have been on the part of the stone now unfortunately lost, for so crowded a series of sculpturings on the narrow top-part suggests strongly that the lower, broader, and principal portion of the stone was not left unoccupied. Is it possible that the stone now found can be part of the famous and long-lost ' Mune-stane' of Cargill?

The tradition about it is, that it had on it figurations of the Sun, Moon, and Seven Stars. It is easily conceivable that, whatever the nature of the symbols, the popular idea might attribute that significance to them.

This stone stood in a field still known as the Moon-stone Butts, not far from the spot on the public road where this fragment was found. The

local belief is that it was buried in that field, though it is easily conceivable, and indeed more credible, that it was only ' slyped' (slipped)

to the roadside to be broken up in due time for road metal.

In this ancient memorial Sir James Y. Simpson was profoundly interested, and I am locally informed that he had actually made arrangements for

having the Moon-stone Butts trenched with a view to its recovery, having obtained the sanction of the proprietor and tenant to the operations, when Death, alas! to soon, as it appears to us, called him away. It would be interesting indeed if the fragment now shown could be proved a part of that famous stone. In any case, it seems a relic sufficiently remarkable to deserve notice.

It is surely only right to add, that the merit of the present discovery is due to Mrs Drummond Black, Gallowhill. She it was who, while the stone breaker was at work, noticed the configurations on the fragment, and, with a curiosity and wit that do her credit, interposed to stay the hand of the destroyer and to secure this valuable relic.

 

1909

PSAS 43 (1908-09) 93-130, Coles, Fred R

REPORT ON THE STONE CIRCLES SURVEYED IN PERTHSHIRE (SOUTH-EAST DISTRICT), WITH MEASURED PLANS AND DRAWINGS; OBTAINED UNDER THE GUNNING FELLOWSHIP

(Footnotes are directly added to the text in brackets -rockartuk-)

No. 22. Standing Stone, Woodside, Cargill.—The little parish of Cargill, as has been ably pointed out by the late Rev. George Baxter (Proceedings, vol. xxvi.) is rich in megalithic and other prehistoric remains. Most of these, however, belong to the middle and south parts of the parish. At present I am able to deal only with two sites at he north end of the parish.

Of this site there is little to tell. It is shown on the O.M. as southwest of the road from Cargill Parish Church to Newbigging, and near the centre of a small wood there, a quarter of a mile north of that farmsteading. The map also prints the words, " human remains found."

In the light of such a statement it is obvious that some excavation must have been made at the Standing Stone. Of this there is now no information to be had; but he statement may help in part to make clear the disappointing result of our quest for this Stone.

On the day of my visit the mist was so abnormally dense and confusing that it was with considerable difficulty the wood -itself was identified; and as its interior is an utter wilderness of trees, shrubs, brambles, broom, wild roses and tall grass, besides being a pheasantry, it is just possible that the monolith searched for evaded my zeal.

I think not, however, because, hearing a hedger at work on the Newbigging side of the wood, I made for him and after plying him with various questions, could get no statement to the effect that he had, though living so near, ever seen any conspicuously tall Stone in the wood.

On retracing my steps, I searched a fresh portion of the wood, and noticed one biggish block of whinstone lying on the grass in a slight hollow of the ground. It was somewhat cubical, about 2 feet 6 inches square, and fractured.

This may he a portion of the former monolith, possibly; and with this dubious result I had to be content. (Footnote 1: On the Gallows Hill, not three hundred yards N.E. of this,site, there used to stand Sculptured Stones, if the map statement be correct. They are not noticed in Early Christian Monuments of Scotland.)

No. 23. -Standing Stone at. Newbigging.—On the land of Newbigging, but a quarter of a mile S.E. of Gladsfield, close to a strip of firwood,

about 40 feet above sea-level, there now stands a monolith which, besides possessing intrinsic points of interest, has a somewhat peculiar history. Its chief feature of interest is that it bears a remarkable set of cup- and ring-marks, and its history is to the following effect. It was first observed as an object of archaeological value many years ago by Mr Fergusson, who, in addition to fulfilling his duties as schoolmaster in Cargill for forty years, displayed indefatigable zeal in searching for and recording the various antiquities of the parish. At the date of the discovery (now, I regret, not accurately ascertainable) the Stone was prostrate.(Footnote 2: See Simpson's Archaic Sculpturings, Appendix to vol. vi. of the Proceedings (1866), p. 59, 60, and pi. v. fig. 4.)

Sir James Y. Simpson, when collecting materials for his important monograph on the Cup- and Ring-marks of Scotland, heard through Mr Fergusson of this Stone, and has placed on record a print from a sketch made of it.

In or about the year 1894 Mr McGregor became tenant of Newbigging. He told me that it had been proposed to blast and remove the Stone. To this Mr McGregor strongly objected, and, in lieu of consenting to this act of barbarism, he had the Stone lifted and set up vertically as it now stands. Would there were more tenant-farmers of the like sense and spirit!

During the erection of the Stone several inches of its heavier end were unavoidably buried in the soil; so that the groups of cup- and ring-marks now seen do not fully display the entire sculpturing. In the appended illustration (fig. 25), I have endeavoured to show the complete groups, to scale, by incorporating the cups and rings shown on Simpson's sketch with those that are now visible. My illustration is treated diagrammationally, as I hold that it is of a greater importance to show what are, indubitably, artificial sculpturings, measured and drawn to scale, than the mere picturesque roughness and pseudo-sculpturings which the weather-worn condition of many stones may have, in the course of time, helped to cause.

For the reasons above stated, it is of course a matter of no consequence to note that the sculpturings occur on the side of the Stone at present facing southwards. It seems unlikely, from the massive thickness and pillar-like form of the Stone, that it ever was a cist-cover, although its former prostrate position might render it possible to put that construction upon it. It seems, from its form and size, more

likely that at some date long prior to its discovery by Mr Fergusson this was truly a Standing Stone.

As at present seen, the apex of this block of rounded whinstone is 4 feet 8 inches above the ground; but the over-all length (or height) is in reality 5 feet 6 inches. The broad sculptured face measures about 3 feet 2 inches, and the greatest girth of the Stone, at about three quarters

of its height, is 7 feet 6 inches. In general form it is an oblong with rounded edges and smooth sides.

The sculpturing comprises 23 plain cups of about 2 inches diameter, unconnected with either rings or grooves; 2 cups surrounded each by a

single ring1; 5 cups surrounded by several rings, and 9 cups which are joined to grooves or rings, making 39 cups in all. In more than one of

these last groups cups are bisected by some of the rings, a feature which occurs frequently in the Galloway specimens.1 Another feature to be observed is that there are two groups each having the segment only of a circle cut outside its outermost ring; this is a 'Somewhat rare

characteristic. The smallest ring is 3J inches in diameter, and the largest 9|.

The longest groove is 4 feet 7 inches, measured from the uppermost ringed cup to the base of the Stone; and the other grooves, counting down the Stone, measure respectively 7, 14, 15£, 18, and 18 inches in length. Not one of the grooves is continued to the edge of the Stone.(Footnote 2: Another Stone with cup-marks, at Newbigging, is figured in the same plate, by Simpson, above referred to ;,and to the east of the farmsteading a large surface of exposed rock, shown to me by Mr M'Gregor, contains a group of cup-marks. These, as well as some other discoveries near Gourdie Hill, I hope to put on record elsewhere.)

No. 24. Stone Circle in New Scone Wood. (Not relevant for this study -rockartuk-)

 

1938

PSAS 72 (1937-38) 143 –9, Young, Alison

CUP AND RING-MARKINGS ON CRAIG RUENSHIN, WITH SOME COMPARATIVE NOTES

A third group appears to be formed of single standing-stones ornamented with cups, rings and channels. These too may be the remains of more complicated monuments. An interesting example is the so called Gladsfield Stone (fig. 5) on Newbigging Farm (Cargill, Perthshire).

One face of this roughly pointed monolith is covered with cups and a series of concentric rings, many joined to a main, stem or channel (fig. 5).

An owl-like or rude anthropomorphic figure can be very plainly seen on this stone and can also be discerned on stones at Braes of Cultullich (near Aberfeldy) and Monzie (near Crieff). Among several analogies on pottery I should like to draw attention to vases illustrated in the Proceedings, vol. xxxvi. pis. 1 and 4. This pattern is discussed by Abbe H. Breuil in his Presidential Address to the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia for 1934, where he deduces a close affinity between the Iberian art and the Irish and in a lesser degree the English and Scottish.

THE CUP AND RING MARKED STONE AT NEWBIGGING FARM, PERTH AND KINROSS DISTRICT, TAYSIDE REGION

The stone was first recognized as an antiquity in the mid-19th century by a Mr Fergusson, then schoolmaster at Cargill (Simpson 1866). Since its discovery three illustrated accounts of the stone have appeared in these Proceedings (Simpson 1866, 60, pi iv, fig v; Coles 1909, 124, fig 25; Young 1938, 46, fig 5) but these reports do not  entirely agree in the description of the stone's discovery, its recent history and its decoration.

stone standing there is no clear statement to indicate that it was thus found, while the lie of cup and ring marks suggest that it was originally recumbent, at least when decorated.

It was decided to move the stone from its previous position (NO 1522 3520) to just beyond the edge of the field nearest Newbigging farmhouse, immediately beside one of the gates, where it has been placed in a recumbent position, better to allow the cup and ring marks to be seen (NO 1558 3521). The stone had fallen at least once in the 19th century and even if re-erected would probably have fallen again. The distribution of the cup and ring marks from extreme end to end of the stone would have prevented the use of a concrete plinth to stabilize the stone if re-erected in situ.

Further, excavation demonstrated that no trace of any prehistoric setting survived in the vicinity of the stone. In its new position the stone is more accessible and better protected. Shortly after the stone was moved a rubbing was taken of its decoration (fig 1).

Despite the erosion of the surface which seems to have slightly blurred the decoration of the stone since the 1860s, a rubbing revealed more marks than had been seen by any earlier observer.

 

Two prints, one of the stone immediately prior to excavation, the other in its new location are appended (Plate 38). The excavators would like to acknowledge the co-operation of Mr G. Croal of Newbigging and the assistance of their colleagues in the Ancient Monuments Branch, especially Dr D J Breeze who read and commented on the manuscript.

 

References

Barclay, G J (1981) 'Newbigging (Cargill p), cup-and ring-marked stone', DES 1981-49.

Barclay, Brooks and Rideout, 1983, 'The cup and ring marked stone at Newbigging Farm, Perth and Kinross District, Tayside Region, PSAS 112, 1982, p. 559-61

Baxter, GC (1892) Some unrecorded relics in the Parishes of Cargill, Scone and St Martins, PSAS 26, 1891-2, page 224

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