Stopped off here again as had missed it when visiting Ballymeanoch and Dunchraigaig earlier in the week. Parked in the small car park designated for Dunchraigaig - the path to Balauchraig rock art panel is on the right of the cairn not though immediately obvious. By chance, we came a cross two American men, father and son, who were also looking for the path to Baluachraig. The father was a talker and pretty much told us his life story on the walk down. Not an uninteresting encounter but something of a distraction.
I've posted a photo of the excellent information board which gives a better image of the cup and ring marks than I could capture in the weather conditions the morning we were there.
We later went on to Ormaig from Carnasserie Castle car park. The grey clouds disappeared, the sun came out ... Ormaig blew me away and, blissfully, we didn't see another soul.
The way the outcrop seems to be the edge of a ledge, got me to wondering if the whole 'terraced' aspect of the Kilmartin landscape might have been subtly different in ages gone by. Particularly in that at some point, there may have been lots more outcrop, before the soil built up. The theorised processional routes may have been lined with stone ridges I got to thinking. Then again, it could be that the edge here is the result of quarrying at some point? That happens a lot with Northumbrian rock art, but I don't know if Kilmartin rock art ever suffered in the same way.
Wheelchair access is not good, even though the path is fenced off from here to Dunchraigaig cairn, it's on a serious camber, so chairs would probably tip to the side.
Arriving here it really struck me that walking from The Glebe Cairn to Ballymeanoch (or vice versa), picking off each site in order you'll always see the last site from the next... The carvings here are great, just a bit more subtle than at some of the other sites in the valley and the setting - wow!
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