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Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art
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Observations after a long overdue revisit in August 2008:-
After recently managing to see a sunset and a sunrise here, I found enough time to linger for long enough for some good pondering about this lovely lump of prehistoric stuff. It struck me that whilst the main panel has no views of the Cheviots (which it would have if the carvings had been on the outcrop on top of the hill), it's actually one of the subset of Northumbrian prehistoric sites that may have been placed with some reference to the hill of Simonside. You can't see Simonside when you're standing at ground level, but if you step up to the natural shelf on the south east side (which you can do without compromising the carvings, as the shelf has turf), you can see the distinctive profile of Simonside quite clearly.
Now this could be overactive associative neuronal stuff in my head, but even if that is the case, I'll claim that if you visit here, you can picture this stone as a nice spot for a bit of 'ritual activity' by some prehistoric spirit botherer, using the water from the natural basin for libatory purposes over the ancestral carvings, making invocations to some sky thingy or other as it descended to the sacred hill on the horizon. All the while casting a good dramatic silhouette to the audience on the pallisade of the strange double hillfort a few yards away.
Despite some effort, I can't manage to suss out any connection with the mysterious Cateran Hole on nearby Cateran Hill. Not even a very tenuous one. Obviously some more exploration of the bleaker bits of Bewick Moor are called for in order to evoke some imagination stimluation.
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Posted by Hob
26th August 2008ce
Edited 26th August 2008ce
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