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MHG2693 - Cup Marked Stone - 'Nine Holed Stone', Fuaranbuie

Summary

A cup marked stone called the 'Nine Holed Stone' at Fuaranbuie.

Type and Period (1)

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Full Description

A cup-marked stone, known locally as the "Nine-holed Stone' lies on the ridge near the farm of Fuaranbuie. It bears at least nine cups in a close group at one end of the stone, two pairs of which are united by grooves. They are carved on the surface of a bluish, fine-grained hard horneblende slab, lying flat on the ground and partly imbedded.
W Jolly 1882

This cup-marked stone,located in an arable field at NH 4665 39941, is still known locally as the 'Nine Holed Stone'. It measures 1.4 metres by 1.5 metres by 0.3 metres high, and the nine cup marks very in size from 1 1/2" in diam. By 1/2" deep to 2" in diam. By 3/4" deep. No trace of any grooves joining any pair of cup-marks could be seen.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (R D) 14 December 1964

This panel was recorded as part of the ScRAP (Scotland’s Rock Art project) by members of NoSAS in March 2019. Approx 4kms southwest of the centre of Kiltarlity a broad ridge, a druim, runs in a southwest direction between the line of the Beauly River and Strathglass to the northwest and the smaller Allt an Loin to the southeast. This ridge is extensively farmed as the crofting community of Kinerras, mostly as pasture. There are areas of woodland amongst the fields. Access to the field in which this stone lies is from the west, from the main drive to another farm called Kinerras at NH 4663 3978. From the drive a field of improved close-cropped pasture rises up to a post and wire fence, beyond which is another field sloping steeply to the northeast. Just beyond the fence are three low stones lying in the close-cropped grass, the most northerly one of which is the "Nine-Holed Stone". This panel lies 10m east of the fence. At the northern end of this field is scattered loose woodland, the margins of which are delineated by large mounds of field clearance. There is another cup-marked stone, the Kinerras Stone (Canmore ID: 12395), in a field of rough grazing approx. 150m to the northeast, across a deer fence. The crofting community of Culburnie with three Clava type cairns (Canmore ID's: 12397, 12388, 12391) lies three kms to the northeast. This is a landscape with many pre-historic archaeological features of settlement and agriculture. Both cups were first recorded by William Jolly in an article in the Proceedings of the Scottish Archaeological Society in 1882 (PSAS, 1882, vol 16, pp 300-401).

Lying flat on the ground, surrounded by close-cropped grass, this prominent roughly triangular panel measures 1.7m NS by 1.4m eastwest and stands 0.3m at its highest point. It is smoothly domed, the highest point being roughly in the middle. The carved surface lies on the domed surface of the broad southern part of the panel. The surface of the panel is smooth, with no obvious fissures or features. The nine cups, as in the name, are configured in the form of a ring of six cups, with a curving "handle" of three cups leading from it northwards. <1>

NGR adjusted based on 2020 vertical aerial photographs. <2>

Sources/Archives (3)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NH 4665 3994 (10m by 10m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NH43NE
Civil Parish	KILTARLITY AND CONVINTH
Geographical Area	INVERNESS

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