Accessibility

Font Size

100% 150% 200%

Background Colour

Default Contrast
Close Reset

Duncroisk 2

Cross Incised Rock (Early Medieval), Cup Marked Rock (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)

Site Name Duncroisk 2

Classification Cross Incised Rock (Early Medieval), Cup Marked Rock (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)

Canmore ID 24167

Site Number NN53NW 14

NGR NN 53267 36423

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/24167

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

Toggle Aerial | View on large map

Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Stirling
  • Parish Killin
  • Former Region Central
  • Former District Stirling
  • Former County Perthshire

Archaeology Notes

NN53NW 14 5325 3641

(NN 533 364) An incised rock face behind Duncroisk farmhouse, 1/4 mile NE of the farm entrance consists of a sloping area, 8' x 2 1/2', of exposed and much weathered schist, bearing groups of figures, four of which include a cross within a circle. There is no evidence to date these symbols and the author could find no real parallel. The encircled cross is not uncommon and V E Nash-Williams (1950) includes them in a group which may be dated broadly to the 7th - 9th centuries AD.

The Duncroisk symbols bear some likeness to those included in fig 5, nos 11-15.

E A Cormack 1952

NN 5325 3641. Three encircled Greek crosses, average diameter 0.17m, incised upon a sloping rock face. Glacial striations and extreme weathering make further identification impossible.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (FRH) 7 July 1962 and (BS) 9 September 1975

Scheduled as Duncroisk, cross-incised rock 325m NE of.

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 8 September 2003.

Activities

Field Visit (June 1978)

Duncroisk, Ring-crosses NN 532 364 NN53NW 14

On a sloping rock face there are at least three very badly weathered ring-crosses which may be of 7th- to 9th-century date.

RCAHMS 1979, visited June 1978

(Cormack 1950, 169-72)

Field Visit (2012)

Further survey work was carried out on Corrycharmaig (NN 527 358), Duncroisk (NN 530 363), Easter Tullich (NN 526 367) and Tirai (NN 529 367). Of greatest significance over the past year was the discovery, during archival research, of three 17th-century references to a Croftravie or Croftrevie, listed between Innischoarach (NN 493 367) and Corrycharmaig Farms. In 1634–35 Jon and Donald McInnes, the latter a shepherd, lived there, but by 1688, two McGrigors, Jon and Duncan, were in residence. No other references to Croftravie have been found to date.

Intensive fieldwork, carried out on Corrycharmaig from March to May 2012, discovered the presence, in the oak woods bounding the S banks of the River Lochay, of a small cluster of dry stone structures including a house and outbuildings (NN 5122 3661). It is a possibility that these remains are those of Croftravie. The other findings from the survey comprise shieling-type huts, field systems and several dry stone buildings, one of which is extant to 2.9m high (NN 5141 3649).

On Duncroisk, a survey of a small group of shieling huts above the old head dyke was undertaken (NN 5381 3654). An area of improved ground (NN 5359 3756) immediately below an improvement dyke was also surveyed, including several dry stone and turf buildings and the remains of activities from the Breadalbane Hydro-electric Project of the 1950s.

An update on ACFA’s initial survey in Glen Lochay on Tirai and Easter Tullich is underway. Archaeological features that were noted above an improvement dyke in the early 1990s have been drawn and fieldwalking above the old head dyke is nearing completion. Here, a small group of five shieling huts were recorded in October (NN 5297 3734).

Three ACFA Occasional Papers have been published this year: Tomochrocher, Batavaime and Tuerichan, the latter a former farm now subsumed within Corrycharmaig.

Archive: ACFA Occasional Papers are deposited with RCAHMS and the Stirling and Clackmannanshire SMR

Dugald MacInnes, Association of Certificated Field Archaeologists (ACFA)

2012

Note (15 May 2019)

Date Fieldwork Started: 15/05/2019

Compiled by: ACFA South Glasgow

Location Notes: The panel is situated in rough grazing on the S facing hillside about 1/4 mile NE of and above Duncroisk Farm, with expansive views over the Glen Lochay valley floor and the Ben Challum range to the W, and S to Corrycharmaig Burn, but no view to the Duncoisk Lower panels adjacent to the river, which are obscured by the rising hillside below. The panel is clearly visible from the area above Duncroisk Farm and is sited on the S side of a small tributary burn which runs into the Allt Dhuinn Croisg below. It lies about 100m above the knoll with the carved rock of Duncroisk 3, from which it is separated by a modern post and wire fence and the improved ground.

Panel Notes: The Canmore record classifies this panel as a Cross Incised Rock (Early Medieval), with no mention of cupmarks. It comprises a W sloping area of exposed and much-weathered schist, measuring about 14 x 12m and flush with the ground. It bears three groups of motifs, three of which include a cross within a circle, and a possible fourth all on the upper N corner of the panel. The lower cross circle utilizes a natural fissure to extend the incised internal diameter line running NW to SE to arrow-headed terminals at each end. A second cross circle adjacent to the NE has a similar extended internal diameter line running E to W, the W with an arrowhead terminal, the E with a studded crosshead and a possibly separate small circled motif added. The third cross circle adjacent to the NE has a similar extended internal diameter line, its W terminal with the possible cuts of a cross base, its E terminal ending with an arrowhead. There is no evidence to date these symbols and the author could find no real parallel. The encircled cross is not uncommon and V.E. Nash-Williams (1950) includes this in a group which may be dated broadly to the 7th-9th centuries AD. The Duncroisk symbols bear some likeness to those included in fig 5, nos 11-15 from E.A.Cormack 1952.

Below this cluster of circles there are 2 cupmarks set in a possible hollow or groove and the area also contains some cruder arrowheads utilizing natural fissures which may be modern.

The motifs are as follows, sited between two natural fissures running E-W down the panel:

Motif 1: an irregular square shaped motif 8x8mm bisected vertically by a single line running NE - SW through the square.

Motif 2: at 280mm to the SSW of above, a ringed cross 170mm diameter. Adjacent to the this an irregular 'eye' shaped depression with a small internal' boss', 140mm diameter with a 30mm wide 'boss'.

Motif 3: at 800mm below to the SSW. a ringed cross 170mm x 160mm the NE - SW vertice of the cross seems to extend slightly beyond the ring.

Motif 4: at 40mm to the SW of above, a ringed cross of 140mm diameter, the E - W arm of this cross extends to the E as an 'arrow head'

Motifs 5: two possible cupmarks 1.1m below the above, one 70mm x 12mm deep, a more problematically second 30mm diameter x 0.05mm deep.

References

MyCanmore Image Contributions


Contribute an Image

MyCanmore Text Contributions