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Lochan Hakel
Cup And Ring Marked Stone (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)
Site Name Lochan Hakel
Classification Cup And Ring Marked Stone (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)
Alternative Name(s) Lochan Hacoin
Canmore ID 5375
Site Number NC55SE 5
NGR NC 56990 52654
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/5375
- Council Highland
- Parish Tongue
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
NC55SE 5 5699 5264.
(NC 5699 5264) Cup and Ring Stone (NR)
OS 6" map (1961)
A large earth-fast boulder whose flat upper surface bears thirty-four cup-marks of which eleven are surrounded by rings. Eight of the markings are well-defined and of these the clearest is 3ins. across by 1 1/4ins. deep with a ring 7ins. in diameter. Local tradition says the markings were made by the high heels of a fairy who lived nearby.
RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909; J Horsburgh 1870
A large, weathered cup and ring marked rock as described.
Visited by OS (JLD) 22 April 1960
No change to RCAHMS report.
Visited by OS (JM) 11 October 1978
NC 56995 52642 Cup and ring marked stone surveyed as part of survey in the Lochan Hakel area carried out by students from University of Aberdeen in July 2006.
J Kirby, D Marquardt, H MacFarlane and S Duthie 21 April 2007
Note (17 October 2019)
Date Fieldwork Started: 17/10/2019
Compiled by: NOSAS
Location Notes: The panel is a large flat-topped erratic boulder perched on a low cliff/bank at the S edge of Lochan Hakel. The lochan lies in a hollow in undulating moorland country. Near the panel it is shallow and there is an island (a possible crannog) less than 50m away. To the S the view is dominated by the jagged peaks of Ben Loyal (764m) about 4km away.
Panel Notes: The panel measures 2.8 x 1.3m with a maximum height of 2.4m. The carved surface covers the flat top of the panel and slopes very gently to the S. The rock is a garnet gneiss, comprising a mass of large (0.5 to 1.0cm) degraded garnets, which are hard and weather to give the rock a knobbly surface. The smaller western part of the surface is divided from the rest by a straight N-S crack, and has an approximately rectangular area 0.3m x 0.2m as the rock around it has been carved away - there are no cup marks in this area. The larger eastern part of the surface has 15 cups, 1 larger shallow cup, 10 cups with single rings, some of which are deeply incised, 3 cups with partial single rings, and 2 cups with single rings and a radial to the N. One of the cups with a partial ring is on the very E edge of the carved area and is deeply incised and different in character to the others.
