Ballochmyle Walls forum 2 room
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Ballochmyle Walls

We need to save this site​…

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wolfnighthunter W
wolfnighthunter Jun 23, 2005 11:05:31

We visited Ballochmyle Walls yesterday, a place we had always wanted to see. Looking at all the various photographs taken, reading all the information available makes this site a must to visit.
On finding the site, you are amazed at the size of the area and the sheer number of carvings. One major things hits you, this site is so amazing, you cannot take in the quality and size of the place, but on the other hand from looking at pics taken since the site was first found in 1986 and looking at it now, this site is in need of major help. The sandstone is weathering at an alarming rate. I have to wonder, this is such an important historical site, why is this place not being looked after on a national level, it surely must be so important. If we do not do something to look after this site, it will be gone within 10 or 15 years. The site is under constant threat from damage from various sources, so please lets try and save this so important and beautiful site.

R rocknicker
rocknicker Jun 23, 2005 11:17:02
Replying to wolfnighthunter

I have to agree that this is an awesome sight (& site)

The problems that are present at this place are very similar to those at other RA sites... should we be able to have access and encourage visits but at the same time risk damage... a very difficult subject.

I know this subject has been discussed before by HA - see http://www.heritageaction.org/?page=heritagealerts for example...

Hmmmm.....

W wolfnighthunter
wolfnighthunter Jun 23, 2005 14:54:41
Replying to wolfnighthunter

i'll be posting my pictures in the next few days, just so people can compare those taken over the past 19 years since found, to show the decline in the condition of the stone.

F FourWinds
FourWinds Jun 23, 2005 15:48:41
Replying to wolfnighthunter

Carvings everywhere are asuffering. Here we have lost so much definition in the carvings on RA and high crosses. I have slides of many of them taken 20 years ago and the deterioration since then is shocking. One thing I am currently working on is a 'Then and Now' thing showing this. Until the industrial revolution arrived in Ireland (the late nineteen eighties!) these monuments were in great condition. Now acid rain and polution is taking them away. If the Irish people will allow Xtian high crosses to be eaten away what hope is there for the pagan rockart?

G greywether
greywether Jun 23, 2005 18:02:07
Replying to wolfnighthunter

Does anyone have any ideas on how the site might be protected or saved because it will probably require an imaginative solution.

The art is unique (?) on being on a vertical face to well over head height and many metres wide. So it cannot be turfed over for protection as you can with most other rock art. Nor can it be removed and placed indoors as has been done (controversially, maybe) with other types of carved stones subject to environmental damage.

Covering it up with trees again or putting it behind a fence of some sort might prevent wilful damage but, from what I saw on my last visit about 6 months ago, this is arguably less of a problem than environmental damage which would not be addressed by these methods. The potential for serious wilful damage is, of course, high so it shouldn't be ignored.

So what does that leave? Well, maybe it could be boxed in with some sort of toughened glass enclosure but it would have to be pretty big - much bigger than the unsightly boxes which have been put round some Pictish stones and maybe too big to be feasible. That would take away a lot of the visual appeal - most visitors would have to look at it through the glass. Not what many of us would wish for.

Saying what probably will not work is the easy bit. Hopefully someone here can come up with something which should work.

Meantime, Hob and others, if you are planing to see it, morning is best. It loses the sun in the afternoon.

W wolfnighthunter
wolfnighthunter Jun 24, 2005 11:57:14
Replying to wolfnighthunter

I am a great admirer of the work done by Canmore, but i am a little uneasy with the work that was done with their excavation in 1987, i think stripping this much material away must have had a big effect on the working of the site as a site, the way the country side evolved and worked with the walls..

any comments?..

http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/pls/portal/newcanmore.p_coll_details?p_arcnumlink=675997

W wolfnighthunter
wolfnighthunter Jun 27, 2005 15:43:30
Replying to wolfnighthunter

I want this site saved, so i think we need a proper controlled site that looks in keeping with the area. I would like the area cleared, to enable good access to the area, but also to stop the vandalisim. I think the walls do need some protection in the form of a covering, i don't like it, but it has to be done. The most important thing is that all that is done has to be done with a form of landscaping that is in keeping with the location.