Carnassarie Farm 3

Date Fieldwork Started: 01/08/2018

Compiled by: Ring Terminus Convergence

Location Notes: Carnasserie Farm 3 and Carnasserie Farm 7 are located on an outcrop situated on an undulating hillside, used for sheep grazing, and with a SE facing orientation. The outcrop has clear views of all the surrounding areas. To the S of the outcrop there is a valley containing an unnamed burn running NW-SE from Ormaig Forest towards Carnasserie Castle (Canmore ID: 22835). A field wall, a man-made path and electricity pylons follow the same line as the burn. A set of two standing stones (Canmore ID: 22838) and a Bronze Age cairn (Canmore ID: 22837) can be seen approximately 500 m to the S of the outcrop. Approximately 250 m to the NE of the panels a cist (Canmore ID: 354383) sits atop a hill.

The panels can be accessed via a roughly trodden grass footpath accessed from Carnassarie Castle which has vehicle access. The two panels are located about 1.7m apart with Carnasserie Farm 3 located to the S of Carnasserie Farm 7 and are part of a larger outcrop jutting out of the SE face of the same hillside. Approximately 100m SW of the two panels there is another panel, Carnasserie Farm 5, which can be found just beyond a lightly trodden man-made grass path intersection which leads in all directions just below the panels and beyond that (on the other side of the burn and path) there is substantial forestation which is a mixture of felled and newly planted trees.

Panel Notes: The panel is part of an outcropping of bedrock, measuring approximately 1.8 x 1.7 m on the upper, carved surface. It is approximately 1.3 m in height on the exposed vertical side. The ground all around is turfed and the carved surface was partially occluded by turf cover. The panel's long axis is oriented to the S. The panel is approximately 1.7 m from Carnasserie 7 and part of the same bedrock outcropping. It may be that they are in fact part of the same panel, but it was not possible to examine the area beneath the extent of turf which separated them.

The panel decoration comprises 9 cup marks with a possible further 2 cups, all of a broadly similar size of between 1 and 2 cm in diameter. With one exception, the cup markings are all located on the northern end of the panel. The panel has significant natural fissures which appear to frame the cup marks. A small piece of quartz was found on the panel beneath some of the turf covering.