Description

Six individual sets of cupmarkings are situated in four separate locations in the vicinity of Glasvaar farm steading.

At least fifteen plain cupmarks are situated on the level top of a prominent erratic boulder which lies in a pasture field about 210m WSW of Glasvaar farm steading. Immediately to the NE of the boulder three other cupmarks are visible on the outcrop on which the boulder rests.

Two areas of cupmarking are situated on rock-sheets about 430m NNW of Glasvaar farm steading, the westernmost example bearing single rings and gutters, a plain cup and gutter, one cup in a depression, two cups linked by two grooves set in a cartouche and seven plain cupmarks.

The most spectacular and extensive example lies on a whale-backed outcrop 7m NW of the track that leads NE from Glasvaar farm steading. The outcrop has two decorated surfaces, one on the crest of a ridge and the other on a terrace to the E. The decoration on the lower surface is the more complex and is covered with turf which is

protecting its largely unweathered surface.

Two cupmarked stones are situated about 50m to the W of Glasvaar farm steading: one has been incorporated into the foundation course of the wall that extends W from the S side of the Glasvaar farm steading garden; the second example is on a rock-sheet 2m to the S of the field wall. It is possible that the boulder has been removed from a large scheduled cairn which lies 90m to the S.

The area to be scheduled comprises four individual areas which include the cupmarkings and an area around in which traces of activities associated with their use may survive, as marked in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

These monuments are of national importance because they form a local group of well-preserved cupmarkings which are, in turn, part of a renowned concentration of similar and related monuments in the neighbourhood of the Kilmartin Valley. This concentration is of national and international importance for its potential to provide information about Neolithic and Bronze Age ritual and social practices.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NM 80 SE 6, 33, 49, 50, 53 and 58.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland