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Latitude: 56.1801 / 56°10'48"N
Longitude: -5.4416 / 5°26'29"W
OS Eastings: 186497
OS Northings: 703936
OS Grid: NM864039
Mapcode National: GBR DDYC.VN6
Mapcode Global: WH0HK.DX0N
Entry Name: Auchinellan,cupmarked rocks and enclosure,1250m N of
Scheduled Date: 26 April 1993
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Source ID: SM5669
Schedule Class: Cultural
Category: Prehistoric domestic and defensive: enclosure (domestic or defensive); Prehistoric ritual and funera
Location: Kilmartin
County: Argyll and Bute
Electoral Ward: Mid Argyll
Traditional County: Argyllshire
The monumen consists of two cupmarked rocks and an enclosure situated in open moorland about 450m NW of Ford Post Office. The enclosure, probably a prehistoric settlement, is roughly circular on plan and measures 17m in diameter within a stone revetted bank 1.5m in thickness and 0.5m in height. Considerable numbers of outer facing stones are visible, particularly on the W, but only two stones of the inner face can be identified. Although the position of the entrance is not certain, it probably lay on the NE.
The only features visible in the interior are three sides of a recent turf-and-stone walled building, the fourth side of which has been robbed, probably to provide stone for a nearby wall. About 3m NE of the enclosure there is a prostrate slab which bears a faint cup-and-ring mark on its SW end. About 35m W of the enclosure is a decorated boulder which measures 2.4m by 1.1m and has at least eight plain cups and two dumb-bells on its upper surface.
The area to be scheduled consists of two discrete areas. The westernmost area is circular on plan with a diameter of 40m. The E area is subcircular, with a maximum diameter of 70m, the stream forming its NW edge. These areas include the enclosure, cupmarkings and an area around in which remains of activities associated with their use and construction may survive, as marked in red on the
attached map.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
The monuments are of national importance for the following reasons. The enclosure may be a Later Prehistoric/Early Historic settlement, of slightly unusual form in contrast to other settlements of the same period, which has the potential to provide information about architecture, economy and the organisation of society through an analysis of its upstanding and buried remains. The cupmarks form part of a remarkable concentration of similar and related monuments in Kilmartin area, a noted cluster of which is situated at Ford, and they therefore have the potential to provide information about Neolithic and/or Bronze Age social life and ritual practice.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Bibliography
RCAHMS records the monument as NM 80 SE 5, 46 and 47.
Reference:
RCAHMS 1988, Inventory for Mid Argyll and Cowal, No. 157.3-4 and 336.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
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