Field Visit

Date 8 December 2004

Event ID 700871

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/700871

An exposure of sandstone bedrock bearing cup-and-ring markings is visible on the steep, wooded W flank of The Binn, some 290m ESE of the ruined farmstead of Silverbarton. The cup-and-ring markings have been carved into the upper surfaces of two adjoining areas of bedrock and the upper surface of an adjacent boulder. The nature of the parent rock gives rise to the erosion of softer material along fault-lines that have either a NNW and SSE axis or one that is ENE and WSW. In the area of the carvings these fault-lines, which vary in width, measure up to over 1m in depth and their bases are generally filled with soil that may support vegetation, including saplings. The boulder that bears carvings on its upper surface appears to be a detached section of bedrock that is now wedged into one of these eroded fault-lines, but it is clear that it was already in its present position when it was decorated.

The principal area of carvings is situated on the upper surface of a block that measures about 2.9m from NNW to SSE by 1.4m transversely and although its upper surface slopes gently down from the NNW end, its height above the adjacent ground level varies from 0.3m at the SE corner to about 2m at the NNW end. The upper surface measures about 2.5m by 1.1m transversely and bears numerous cupmarks, some of which are enclosed by single rings. Several of the cup-and-ring markings also exhibit a short length of channel radiating out from the cup, however the surface of the rock is very heavily weathered and a significant amount of detail must have been lost.

Immediately to the SSE is a small section of bedrock which has been protected from the elements by a rock overhang. The carvings here comprise a single cup, but it is surrounded by three rings that are broken on the NW to allow a channel from the cup to run to the edge of the upper surface of the exposure. There are no other carvings on this section of outcrop, but possibly significant is the erosion of a natural inclusion that has produced a cup-shaped depression, measuring about 100mm in diameter, some 290mm NE of the genuine cup mark.

The carving on the detached boulder is limited to a relatively small area measuring about 0.5m from N to S by 0.4m transversely, which slopes gently down from S to N. Close to the centre of this area is a cup measuring some 70mm in diameter which is partly surrounded, on its S side, by a ring. What appears to be a channel or gutter runs from the cup towards the NW edge of the stone. There is another cup about 120mm NNW of the cup-and-ring mark, but all of the other cup-like depressions appear to be natural. Two of these depressions, however, have what may be channels running from them to the NW edge of the stone.

Situated immediately N of the outcrops bearing the cup-and-ring markings is another outcrop, one of two, some 25m apart, that bear incised crosses on their upper faces. The northernmost cross is described elsewhere (see NT28NW 406). The S cross measures 420mm from N to S by 310mm transversely and about 10mm in depth. Its arms measure about 40mm in width, those extending to the E and W arms are up to 140mm long, but the N and S arms are markedly longer, reaching as far as the respective edges of the narrow section of bedrock.

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) 8 December 2004.