Field Visit

Date 26 December 2021

Event ID 1166204

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1166204

NS 56138 01827 This rock art panel was listed as Nether Glenny (NG) 32 by Scotland’s Rock Art Project (ScRAP Ref. 2650). It incorporates a single motif resembling a spoked wheel. This is a very rare motif in British rock art and it occurs at only one other site, the Ballochmyle Wall in Ayrshire, where there are several very similar examples to the one at Nether Glenny. NG32 was discovered and recorded by George Currie in 2009 but was never subsequently relocated due to the dense overgrowth of conifers.

A field visit to the area in December 2021 revealed that the forest had suffered extensive damage the previous month from Storm Arwen. However, the storm damage included the uprooting of the row of trees overgrowing the likely location of NG32, which had exposed an extensive area of bedrock. When cleared of the remaining roots and soil, the spoked wheel found in 2009 was revealed. In addition to this, a second spoked wheel motif was found close by, together with a number of cup and ring markings scattered over the rock surface, which has overall dimensions of 7.5 x 1.8m.

The two spoked wheel motifs lie either side of a large, oval solution hollow. There are a number of these distinctive oval hollows on the exposure. Each wheel motif has an outer ring with a central cup mark and a series of radial lines extending from the cup to the outer ring, forming the ‘spokes’ of the wheel. The W wheel motif has a diameter of 0.28m with a central cup mark of 60mm. The E motif has a diameter of 0.26m with a cup mark of 30mm.

In addition to the wheels, the rock bears 11 single cup marks, five cups with single rings, two cups with double rings and 1 cup with triple rings.

Sketchfab 3D model references: https://skfb.ly/o8nTq and https:// skfb.ly/o8pES

Since the exposure would be highly vulnerable to potential damage from any forestry operations to clear the storm damage, the private company managing this private forest, Highfield Forestry, was contacted to inform them of its presence. The company proved highly receptive to this information and stated that they would make allowance for the sensitivity of the site within their clearance contracts, which were planned to be put out for tender in 2022. Their Senior Forest Manager consequently arranged a site visit with the author in July 2022 to delineate the area of known and potentially undiscovered rock art so that it could be protected throughout the planned forestry operations. They also undertook to amend their replanting plans to keep land clear of trees for at least 20m either side of the delineated area and to recommend to the landowner that only deciduous trees be planted in the local section of forest beyond this distance.

Nick Parish

(Source: DES Volume 23)