Allt Thorrisdail 1
Cup Marked Stone (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)
Site Name Allt Thorrisdail 1
Classification Cup Marked Stone (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)
Alternative Name(s) Torrisdale
Canmore ID 5795
Site Number NC66SE 7
NGR NC 66577 61818
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/5795
- Council Highland
- Parish Tongue
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
NC66SE 7 6657 6181
See also NC66SE 12.
(Area NC 664 612) Two cup-marked stones lie 3/4 mile SW of Torrisdale (NC 67 61) adjacent to the track across the moorland which joins the road from Borgie Bridge to Tongue. The more westerly is the larger and is a boulder about 8ft high and 14ft long. On its south side are two groups of about twelve cup-marks from 2ins to 3ins in diameter. The smaller stone lies about 10ft to the east and measures about 6ft long and 4ft high. On its NW face there are about twenty-six small cup-marks and definite traces of others. The south face is scored with deep lines crossing each other but no evident design.
RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909.
These rocks are at NC 6657 6181 on a spur in the foot of an east facing hillside. They lie 2.0m apart and are almost certainly the two separated pieces of a fractured boulder erratic. The larger, westerly block measures an irregular 3.0m broad by 4.5m long by 3.0m high, and bears on the upper surface at least twenty cup-marks; one measures 8cms diameter by 4cms deep, but mainly the depressions are small and in some instances elongated. Several sets of initials have been cut into this face of the block. The smaller stone measures 1.5 broad by 2.0m long by 1.5m high and tapers narrowly to the top. It bears on its westerly sloping side up to twenty-five cup-marks except for one, 7cms diameter by 5cms deep, the hollows are small and unimpressive. On the opposing side of the stone is a single, small cup-mark.
Surveyed at 1:10 000.
Visited by OS (J M), 15 August 1978.
Note (17 October 2019)
Date Fieldwork Started: 17/10/2019
Compiled by: NOSAS
Location Notes: This is the smaller of a pair of panels readily visible on slightly raised ground at the W end of the broad E-W strath of the Allt Torrisdail. It is close to the bend where the Allt Torrisdail changes course from N to E. The open strath is boggy moorland bounded at the N and S by rocky outcrops.
(Note that the adjacent larger panel is Allt Torrisdail 2, not to be confused with ALLT TORRISDAIL (Canmore ID: 5778).)
Panel Notes: The panel is a smoothly irregular boulder of schist, 2.1m x 2.0m x 1.6m high, pointed at the top. The main carved surface (A) slopes at 60° and is oriented NW, and has about 26 cup marks, plus several grooves and smaller indentations. There are also 6 possible cup marks low on the NE side of the panel (carved surface B).
The surface of the boulder is weathered and rounded and it is likely that some, at least, of the cups are natural, or have been enhanced by weathering.
