Coul Woods

Date Fieldwork Started: 11/11/2019

Compiled by: NOSAS

Location Notes: The panel lies within the area now called Coul Woods but which would have originally formed part of an avenue of planted beech trees leading to Coul House. The trees are over 100 years old and appear on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map but may date from the building of Coul House in 1821 by the Mackenzies of Coul or the improvements to the house in 1860. The cup marked stone lies beside a beech tree at present but has been reused as a support for a metal post which may have formed a gate post or fence post dating from the time of the planting of the trees or slightly later. The metal post has been cut off near to the surface of the stone, although there is a second stone nearby with its metal post intact. Both stones are not even in their original fence line but lying roughly on the line of the trees. To the N there are more trees, beech and birch, recently planted (c.20-30 years old) on the edge of cultivated ground further to the N. To the S the cultivated ground slopes down to the confluence of the Black Water and the Conon River. There is another cup marked stone at Preas Mairi (ScRAP 403, Canmore 12447) to the W and there are chambered cairns, a henge and a crannog in the area.

Panel Notes: The panel is a block of stone measuruing 1.1m N-S by 0.7m and 0.3m high. It is roughly rectangular with no signs of being shaped, however it has been reused as a base for a gate post or fence post in the past. At the N end of the stone there is the bottom section of a square metal post secured with lead into the stone and a small drill hole to the S of the metal post. There are 2 cups with single rings at the N end of the stone with another 5 cups and a possible very small cup. A natural fissure crosses the stone E-W. The stone is covered with lichen.