MHG12719 - Cup & Ring marked stone - Lochan Hakel
Summary
A cup and ring marked stone at Lochan Hakel.
Type and Period (1)
- CUP AND RING MARKED STONE (Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 4000 BC? to 551 BC?)
Protected Status
Full Description
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
This panel was recorded as part of the ScRAP (Scotland’s Rock Art project) by members of NoSAS in October 2019. The panel is a large flat-topped erratic boulder perched on a low cliff/bank at the south 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 south the view is dominated by the jagged peaks of Ben Loyal (764m) about 4km away.
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 south. 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 north-south 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 north. One of the cups with a partial ring is on the very east edge of the carved area and is deeply incised and different in character to the others. <1>
NGR adjusted based on 2020 vertical aerial photographs. <2>
Sources/Archives (4)
- --- SHG1182 Text/Publication/Article: Horsburgh, J. 1870. 'Notes of cromlechs, duns, hut-circles, chambered cairns, and other remains, in the County of Sutherland', Proc Soc Antiq Scot Vol. 7, 1866-8, pp 271-9. Proc Soc Antiq Scot. 277.
- --- SHG2657 Text/Report: RCAHMS. 1911. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Second report and inventory of monuments and constructions in the county of Sutherland. . 187, No. 541.
- <1> SHG28055 Interactive Resource/Online Database: Historic Environment Scotland. 2017-. Scotland's Rock Art (ScRAP). ScRAP ID 2380.
- <2> SHG28725 Image/Photograph(s)/Aerial Photograph/Vertical: Get Mapping. 2020. Getmapping aerial photography 2020. XY
Map
Location
| Grid reference | Centred NC 5699 5265 (6m by 6m) (2 map features) |
|---|---|
| Map sheet | NC55SE |
| Geographical Area | SUTHERLAND |
| Civil Parish | TONGUE |
Finds (0)
Related Monuments/Buildings (0)
Related Investigations/Events (1)
External Links (3)
- http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/SM1806 (Online designation description (Historic Environment Scotland))
- https://canmore.org.uk/site/5375 (View HES Canmore entry for this site)
- https://www.rockart.scot/rock-art-database/?scrapToolsaction=datatools:panel.view_all&id=D9DF0FB5-E99F-48AB-BEC94C76BE0700E2 (View the ScRAP record for this site)
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