<< Our Photo Pages >> Allt Coire Phadairlidh 1 - Rock Art in Scotland in Perth and Kinross

Submitted by Andy B on Friday, 17 August 2007  Page Views: 8284

Rock ArtSite Name: Allt Coire Phadairlidh 1 Alternative Name: Allt Coire Phadairlidh 2, Ben Lawers
Country: Scotland County: Perth and Kinross Type: Rock Art
Nearest Town: Killin
Map Ref: NN690427
Latitude: 56.557939N  Longitude: 4.132984W
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
 no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 no data 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.
 no data 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
 3
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Allt Coire Phadairlidh 1
Allt Coire Phadairlidh 1 submitted by rockartuk : Photo taken in May 2003 (Vote or comment on this photo)
Cup and Ring marks in Perth and Kinross. Archaeologists have been researching a large group of ancient rock art in Perthshire, which they hope will shed more light on the area’s prehistoric inhabitants.

A team working on National Trust for Scotland (NTS) land as part of the Ben Lawers Historic Landscape Project found the previously undiscovered ‘cup-and-ring’ style markings on a hillside overlooking Loch Tay and Kenmore. The carvings could date back to Neolithic times and be up to 5,000 years old.

Cup-and-ring rock art features abstract symbols of circles and cups, chipped out of the stone some time between 3,000-1,500 BC, from the late Neolithic period to the early Bronze Age. Other examples have been found at locations in upland Britain and across Atlantic Europe, from Portugal to Orkney.

“It is likely that these specialised symbols had different meanings depending on their context of use, much like the Christian cross,” explained Derek Alexander, NTS West Region Archaeologist.

“Some are used in ceremonial monuments, others are on public display in open landscapes like Ben Lawers, while some are included in individual burial cists [stone caskets].”

The archaeological team, led by Professor Richard Bradley from Reading University and Aaron Watson, decided to excavate one of the terraces along the hillside where the carvings were found.

“The team have been excavating small trenches around the bedrock outcrops to try and find any artefactual evidence that might be contemporary with the carving and use of the rock art sites,” said Derek.
“Already quantities of flaked and worked quartz have been recovered,” he added. “More surprising, however, was the discovery of two flakes of Arran pitchstone. This is a volcanic glass that is only found on the Isle of Arran in the Firth of Clyde and must have been brought to the site at Ben Lawers.”

It is hoped that these discoveries will lead to a much better understanding of Scotland’s prehistoric past, said archaeologist Aaron Watson, who has investigated several cup-and-ring sites, including one at Kilmartin Glen in Argyll.

“What is important about our current work is trying to move beyond simply studying the individual motifs to finding evidence for the people who made, used and understood these sites.”

Source: 24 Hour Museum and more on the overall project at the Ben Lawers Historic Landscape Project.

Note: Perthshire Rock Art sheds light on Scotland's prehistoric past
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Allt Coire Phadairlidh 1
Allt Coire Phadairlidh 1 submitted by MrDonald : I think this is CLOANLAWERS 1 which recorded as being 75m from the natural standing stone and very close to CLOANLAWERS 2. Visited 30th December 2021. We also found CLOANLAWERS 6 (Vote or comment on this photo)

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Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
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"Allt Coire Phadairlidh 1" | Login/Create an Account | 3 News and Comments
  
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Excavating prehistoric rock carvings on Ben Lawers by Andy B on Sunday, 02 July 2017
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Richard Bradley & Aaron Watson write:

Few subjects are more difficult to study than rock carvings, for those in Britain are entirely abstract. Few are associated with monuments and still fewer can be dated, although they were probably made between 3000 and 2000 BC. When they are shown on maps they give nothing away - they are described as 'cup and ring marks '. Are there any ways in which they can be investigated?

In a few cases these distinctive designs were used to embellish monuments, and occasionally cairns were constructed over decorated outcrops, but there is not enough evidence to shed much light on their significance. Certain designs are shared with megalithic tombs, but it is rare. Another approach is to study the relationship between the decorated surfaces and their siting in the landscape. Where were carvings made? Did the designs vary according to the local topography? Were the carvings more complex where they were close to major monuments? These questions can sometimes be answered by fieldwork.

A new approach is to ask a different question. What happened at the carved rocks, and did it leave any traces behind? That requires excavation. A promising start has been the work of Blaze O'Connor in Ireland and that of Andrew Jones and his colleagues in the west of Scotland, but the sites that were investigated were in landscapes with specialised monuments. For that reason they may be unusual. What was also needed was an area in which such monuments were rare or absent.

An ideal candidate is the Ben Lawers Estate overlooking Loch Tay in the southern Highlands of Scotland. The estate is managed by the National Trust for Scotland and its archaeology has been investigated by the Scottish Royal Commission. Over a hundred carved rocks have been recorded to a uniform standard. Many survive on the high ground above the area cleared in the post-medieval period, and there are no prehistoric monuments in the vicinity.

excavation on Ben LawersOur project was located on the 400 metre contour. The work followed a simple procedure. One metre square test pits were excavated against the edges of the decorated rocks, and another ring of pits was excavated five metres away. This would be enough to show whether they were associated with deposits of artefacts and whether the distribution of finds was limited to the stones themselves. Unless that happened, their discovery might not be significant. At the same time the procedure was repeated for an equally conspicuous rock that had never been carved. Would it be associated with artefacts, or would they be absent?

This procedure soon showed that deposits of worked and broken quartz were associated with the carved rocks and were rare elsewhere, but we wanted to know more about why these rocks had been selected and how they might have been used. Here the contrasts between different rock carvings proved to be important. Concentrations of artefacts were associated with prominent decorated outcrops and were not found with those on flat surfaces that did not stand out in the local topography. It made no difference whether the motifs pecked into their surfaces formed simple or complex patterns.

Two of the decorated outcrops contrasted in subtle ways. One was a large domed rock with a set of concentric circle pecked at its highest point. Quantities of worked quartz were found around its base, and a few artefacts, including a flint flake, were associated with fissures on top of the stone itself. There was only one place from which the carving could be viewed by people visiting the site. Here there was evidence of cobbling associated with concentrations of quartz.

The second decorated outcrop was quite different, for there was a large natural basin on its upper surface. Two sides of that basin had been embellished with complex designs, and in the sediments around them were further quantities of worked and broken quartz. In this case there were virtually no finds from the base of

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f*** me there's Richard Bradley! by Andy B on Friday, 17 August 2007
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If you can bear the gratuitous 'aren't I cool' swearyness then TMA's fitzcoraldo has a recent account of this:

http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/5284/allt_coire_phadairlidh_12.html
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    Re: f*** me there's Richard Bradley! by bat400 on Friday, 17 August 2007
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    I thought you guys said, "Blimey" or "Crikey" like in the Harry Potter books...
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