Blarnaboard 1

Date Fieldwork Started: 29/10/2019

Compiled by: Callander

Location Notes: The panel is situated about 300m NE of Blarnaboard farmhouse (note that the long track to the farm is off-limits to unauthorised vehicles). The location can also be accessed via a walk of about 1 mile from Lamahamish forest car park to the NE of Gartmore village. Older photographs show the outcrop in well-grazed short turf, backed by a mature conifer forest to the immediate N. However, the forest has been clear felled and replanted and this area is now open. The rocks are currently in an area which does not appear to have been grazed for some time and as a result were almost covered by long, course moorland-type grass with much bracken encroachment in the immediate area. The Scottish Forestry boundary fence crosses the northern end of the rock, and a line of telegraph poles crosses the field in which the rocks are situated from NW to SE, with a pole about 25m to the immediate S of the outcrop. An access gate and path lead from the Scottish Forestry side of the fence a few metres to the SE of the stones and the path then continues diagonally across the field in the direction of Gartmore.

Panel Notes: The panel is an 8m long outcropped ledge of sandstone orientated roughly N to S, flush with the ground. Geologically, the outcrop is a continuation of the Ruchill Flagstone Formation - a sandstone which is the same geological group as for the rock art assemblage at the Nether Glenny-Ballochraggan area, Port of Menteith, some 8km NE. The outcrop is segmented into 6 main slabs along its length. Each slab is roughly rectangular and range in width from about 0.90 to 0.65m, with the most southerly tapering off at its S end. For the purposes of this record, the slabs are described looking to SE (i.e. from the bottom of the step formed by the outcrop - the natural position from which to view the markings). The separate slabs are numbered from left to right as Rocks 1 through to 6 and are described in turn :

Rock 1: 1.10 x 0.60m

There is no rock art on this panel. There are some depressions with a superficial resemblance to cupmarks which are clearly natural.

Rock 2: 1.50 x 0.90m

2 cups with single rings (a. cup 6x2cm with ring 12cm diam. b. cup 5cm diam with ring 24cm diam.)

1 cup with 5 rings, the outside ring is partial (cup 7x1.5cm with outside partial ring max. diam. of 52cm)

Possibly 11-13 further single cups, all in the top two thirds of the stone with possibly others markings are hinted at in the lower section of the panel but this is so worn that nothing substantive now remains. The single cups on the panel range from4-6cm diam.).

Rock 3: 1.80 x 0.65m

1 cup with deeply incised ring (cup 5x1.5cm with ring 12cm diam.), both cup and ring are covered with prominent peck marks

3 cups with double rings (a. cup 6x1.5cm with outer ring, somewhat indistinct, diam. 30cm b. cup 5x1.5cm with indistinct rings 26cm outer diam. c. on the right hand fragment - cup 4cm diam with outer ring ~30cm diam.), the photogrammetry model also hints that the cupmark below this might have had a single or double ring around it)

1 cup with 7 rings, the outer 2 rings being partial (cup 9cmx2cm with outer ring 40cm diam.)

Possibly 22 further cupmarks on the panel ranging in diameter from 7 to 3cm and from 2cm to

The loose row of cupmarks, together with the cup and single ring all exhibit highly prominent and possibly deliberate pecking decoration. This is especially noticeable for the top left cup mark (7x1cm).

Rock 4: 1.40 x 0.70m

The top half of the left hand section of this panel has been obliterated through erosion/fragmentation. On the right hand section of rock there is a cup (4x1.5cm) with two rings (18cm outer ring diam.)

6 further cupmarks one of 5x1cm, the others from 3-4x

Rock 5: 1.30 x 0.80m

There is no rock art on this panel.

Rock 6: 1.60 x 0.70m

Three or four tenuous cupmarks but are overwhelmingly more likely to be natural.