Achnabreck 3

(2) This rock outcrop, sometimes referred to as Achnabreck Wood, is situated in a forestry plantation 150m E of Achnabreck 1 (Morris 1977, 42). The decoration includes at least fifteen multi-ringed cupmarks (with up to six rings) many of which have extended gutters trailing from their cups, numerous single-ringed cups, and a large number of plain cupmarks.

RCAHMS 1988, visited May 1984

Date Fieldwork Started: 23/07/2019

Compiled by: ScRAP

Location Notes: The panel is located within a 16x7m fenced area of grassland managed by Historic Environment Scotland, on the gentle S-facing slope of a hill that runs down to Lochgilphead, with open views down Loch Gilp and the Kintyre peninsula. The fenced area sites within a clearing surrounded by bracken and mixed deciduous and mature spruce woodland. A footpath runs in front of the panel, leading from the large panels of Anchabrek 1 and 2, roughly 120m to the WNW, and then turns uphill to the E of Achnabrek 3. There is a wooden viewing platform and interpretation panel immediately outside the fenced area, on its S side. The carved panels of Achnabrek 5 and 6 lie downslope about 50 and 100m respectively.

Panel Notes: The panel is a large area of exposed schist bedrock, measuring about 5.3x2.9m, flush with the ground. It has a slightly undulating profile sloping generally to the S, following the shape of the terrain. The surface is naturally textured by pitting and features numerous fissures running widthways and occasionally diagonally across the panel. There are also several glacial striations running NW-SE along the panel. There are multiple cup and ring motifs, including one large cup with 5 rings and a long radial in the centre of the panels, as well as at least 11 cups with 2 or 3 rings, pennanulars or partial rings, of which 7 have radials, and at least 22 cups with single rings or partial rings, of which 17 have radials. There are, in addition, 27 cups, 8 cups with radials, and a network of elongated grooves, many of which interconnect with the radials or with other motifs. The main area of carving is in the central and NE sections of the surface, and many of the radials and grooves run in a SW direction down the panel into the surrounding turf or into natural fissures. Some of the motifs are quite irregular, as if created by several different authors, possibly over a protracted time-span.