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<< Our Photo Pages >> Totaig Cup Markings - Rock Art in Scotland in Highlands

Submitted by uisdean on Thursday, 12 April 2007  Page Views: 11322

Rock ArtSite Name: Totaig Cup Markings
Country: Scotland
NOTE: This site is 0.848 km away from the location you searched for.

County: Highlands Type: Rock Art
 Nearest Village: Letterfearn
Map Ref: NG87432536
Latitude: 57.269302N  Longitude: 5.527179W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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Totaig Cup Markings
Totaig Cup Markings submitted by uisdean : Cup marks or bait holes at Totaig (NG 8764325363) (Vote or comment on this photo)
Cup marks in Highlands.
On a rocky promontory close to the Ferry House at Totaig (NG 87642536) is an intriguing group of some 23 large cup marks, for the most part hemispherical and some 6 inches in diameter, carved into the limestone rock at around and above high water mark.


The OS suggests that the circular impressions on the rock are natural, caused by the sea’s action. (See Canmore site NG82NE11.) On the other hand, the regularity in size of the impressions suggests otherwise. RWB Morris, in The cup-and ring marks and similar sculptures of Scotland (PSAS 100, 1967-8, pp 47-78) catalogues a number of similar sites in Tiree and Argyll, which he classifies as bait holes – holes where fishermen ground up shellfish such as crab and limpet to use as ground bait. The Gaelic word for such cups is Crotagan. He notes that ‘In view of the change in sea-level since prehistoric times it seems probable that until not many centuries ago these big cups were well below the sea, if they existed’. The cup marks at Totaig are indeed at a productive fishing point. But Morris also notes that similar smooth round cups were also to be found one and a half miles inland on Tiree, in one solitary instance, on the top of a hill.

An earlier writer on the Crotagan of Tiree (J Sands, Notes on the Antiquities of the Island of Tiree (PSAS 16 (1881-2) p 459)) was told by local fishermen that the marks were used for bait. But he comments that ‘It is altogether incredible that people who
had no more important end in view than to prepare a lure for sillocks, would have undertaken the enormous labour of making so many holes in rocks [gneiss] of such excessive hardness….. I have no doubt that some of these cups are often used for the humble purpose mentioned; but I have come to the conclusion that the crotagan are a relic of the ancient Celtic mythology—that they belong to the period of the sculptured
stones, and probably embody all that was known of astronomy in that time.’

Another local explanation of the cup marks at Totaig has that they were made as moulds for the cannon balls which were used in the destruction of Eilean Donan castle, half a mile across the sound, during the abortive 1719 Jacobite rebellion.

Whether this site should be on the Megalithic Portal remains therefore an open question. But as carvings in rock they are certainly intriguing.
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Totaig Cup Markings
Totaig Cup Markings submitted by uisdean : Cup marked rock at Totaig (NG 8764325363). The old Ferry House can be seen beyond the rock. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Totaig Cup Markings
Totaig Cup Markings submitted by uisdean : Cup marks or bait hole at Totaig (NG 8764325363). The marks are regular in size, about 6 inches in diameter. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Totaig Cup Markings
Totaig Cup Markings submitted by uisdean : Cup marks or bait holes at Totaig (NG 8764325363) (Vote or comment on this photo)

Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.

Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
NG8725 : Ob Aoinidh by Richard Croft
by Richard Croft
©2017(licence)
NG8725 : Ob Aoinidh by Richard Croft
by Richard Croft
©2017(licence)
NG8725 : Loch Duich, Totaig and the old ferry house by Tom Richardson
by Tom Richardson
©2008(licence)
NG8725 : Totaig Ferry House by Dave Fergusson
by Dave Fergusson
©2006(licence)
NG8725 : Old Ferry House by Adam Ward
by Adam Ward
©2023(licence)

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"Totaig Cup Markings" | Login/Create an Account | 1 comment
  
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Re: Totaig Cup Markings by DavidJones on Tuesday, 01 March 2016
(User Info | Send a Message)
Hi Uisdean. Very nice photos, especially the location view with the house in the background. These are bait holes ie. they were made as mortars for grinding limpets etc to make ground bait, which was then applied in the adjacent fishing position. The method of fishing would be one of three (depending on local factors): a long rod with fixed line (no reel) and a 'fly' of sheeps wool; a hand line with float; a tàrbh (pr. tarve) net, like a big landing net. Small immature Coalfish (cuddies) would be attracted by the ground bait, possibly Pollack. In the more 'remote' parts of the Highlands and Islands, fishing from these bait holes continued into the 1960s, well within the living memory of older people. There are hundreds, probably thousands, of bait holes in Scotland, located only in good fishing marks. They serve as a reminder of the resourcefulness of ordinary people when faced with hunger, and are just as interesting, in their own way, as the ancient cup marks of Scotland and elsewhere.
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