Archaeology Notes

Event ID 727595

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/727595

NX74NW 6 7068 4878.

(NX 7068 4878) Cup and Ring Marked Rocks (NR)

OS 6" map (1957)

Coles records cup-and-ring marks to the W of Galtway, on a piece of sandstone outcrop. "C" is due E of "A", 10' away, and is the same distance from "B". They were not found in 1911, but Morris located two of them W of the cottage ruins, 110 yds from NW wall, 170 yds from SW wall, which from his description would seem to be A and C.

F R Coles 1895; R W B Morris and D C Bailey 1967; RCAHMS 1914, visited 1911

An extensive perambulation of the area, and examination of all outcropping rock, failed to locate these marks.

Visited by OS (RD) 15 January 1971

This site could be re-located in 1986 as it was found to be fully excavated by a previous visitor. It proved to be the same site described by Morris as Low Banks 2. Morris describes two of the carved surfaces (B and C) and a third outcrop (A) reported by Coles could also be found, as well as a new carved outcrop (D). As sketches both by Coles and Morris show (minor) errors all rocks will be described again. Galtway 1A; one cup and two complete rings and part of a third one, with a tail from the central cup and some three other grooves from the inner ring, probably not prehistoric.

Galtway 1B; one single cup and another possible one; one cup and three complete but not quite circular rings.

Galtway 1C; a faint cup and four rings, the SE quadrant almost weathered off, with some very faint grooves; a long curving groove, very shallow; two large single cupmarks; two single short curved grooves forming a sort of V-shaped figure. This latter figure has been previously described as a semi-circle. There possibly is a faint ring-only of small dimensions.

Galtway 1D; about 1m to the NE of 1C and on a lower level, almost completely overgrown, is a smooth rock surface with two V-shaped grooves and two areas with possible pockmarks.

M A M Van Hoek 1987.