The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

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Stone Circle

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In a paper written for The Proceedings of the Antiquarian Society by James Mackintosh in the 1880's entitled "Notice of cup-marked stones & curing well on the estate of Garth, Fortingall, Perthshire. Mackintosh catalogues a number of cup marked stones in an area bounded by the "hamlet of Drumcharry to the west, to the Keltney Burn on the east (2 miles), the river Lyon on the south, and about 2 miles north from where the Keltney Burn joins the Lyon.
The first rock he describes is in the bed of the Lyon a few yards west from the lime kiln belonging to the farm of Tynadalloch. This rock had five well defined cups.
The second rock was in the village of Drumcharry and is described as a large boulder 7 feet long with a large cup of 4 inches in diameter near to it's west end.
The next stone a part of "a pavement in front of a barn door" in the village which appears to be a fragment of a larger stone. The rock has 3 well-executed cups on the top.
The next stone he describes is above the farmhouse of Balnacraig on a slope east of the "Pictish fort or Casteil-na-Feinne". There were several boulders, one of which had a cupmark 3 ½ inches in diameter.
Farther east in the glen of the Keltney Burn, 500 yards above the farmhouse of Wester Litigan and the same distance from the old castle of Garth "one of the strongholds of the Wolf of Badenoch, there is a harp shaped boulder" this boulder is 8 x 7 x 4 feet with 5 cup marks upon it, he also found fragments from the stone and putting them together reassembled another 5 cups.
On a rock on the top of a "sithean or fairy knowe" 600 yards due north of the ruin of Garth Castle he found 5 cup marks one of which was surrounded by a grooved ring 6 inches in diameter.
500 yards south east from the farm house of West Litigan he found a water worn boulder 3 feet by 3 feet which had one cup mark upon it.
Between the farm-houses of Upper Blarish and Balnacroick he found a rock 8 x 4 x3 feet which had a vein of quartz running through it and 5 cup marks "lying across the weather worn grooves of the rock".
He mentions a number of cup-marked rocks on stone which were to be used as road stone and then describes a stone noticed by Dr Macmillan on "the island at Keltney Mill. Mackintosh describes visiting this stone with a fella called Duncan Haggart. The stone had 12 cups including two connected pairs. Mr Haggart informs Mackintosh that three of the cups were made by him as a boy.
He then goes on to give a description of the nearby spring called "Fuaran n' Gruarach or Fuaran n' Druibh Chased being Well of the Measles or well of the Hooping-cough" where it was the custom to carry the water from the well and place it in a cavity "and the give the patients as much as they could take, the water being administered with a spoon made from the horn of a living cow, called a 'beoadharc', or living horn".
fitzcoraldo Posted by fitzcoraldo
13th October 2004ce

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