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Ballochmyle WallsCup and Ring Marks / Rock Art
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24/08/22 This East Ayrshire site wasn't easy to locate or get to by public transport and involved a short walk along a busy road before reaching The River Ayr Path... yet with a little willpower , determination and a bit of planing I finally built up the courage to venture down to try and locate the cliff-face decorated with these magnificent cup and ring marks. upon reaching the car parking location (as described in the book) just across the field and over the gate I finally found Ballochmyle Walls - a true hidden gem that I was glad to have put the effort into finding - the sight was truly peaceful and worthy of visiting despite the fact that a lot of it appears to be quickly fading since its discovery. |
Posted by Hornby Porky 15th September 2022ce |
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I have been visiting this site for over 15 years. 5 years ago I could see that they had noticeably worn since my first visit. Sadly last month (Aug 2019) they were barely visible any more - see photos. The sun symbol and the cross (plus shape) symbol have pretty much vanished. The walls still look reasonable when photographed in landscape panorama but close up the individual cups and rings are extremely faint. So get here quick before they vanish completely. To assist your visit do not follow the path from the gate diagonally across the field and over the wee bridge then right up through the tricky brush, fallen trees and steep muddy slopes as per the old directions. Just park as described and go through the field gate then head straight across the field to the piece of fence/stile on the other side sprayed yellow. There is a photo of this stile/fence among the photos - dated 2007. Climb over it and cross the small muddy burn and the walls are straight across from you up a slight rise. Much, much easier than the other way but wear boots or wellies anyway. |
Posted by new abbey2nd September 2019ce Edited 3rd September 2019ce |
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The OS map was pretty vague about where exactly the walls are, firstly we took the middle path that goes high but under the bridge ...not that way ,next we went left and ended up at the rivers edge beautiful but...not that way,after an hour and half we took one last chance and wahay we found them . There are bigger and wider cliffs and walls but they chose these two little ones out of the way, very strange. They do look very faded but still visible, we asked four people if they knew where the rock art was, but to no avail so god knows how brainless kids found them I don't know what can be done to protect them but something should be done. There was no directions from the car park nor any mention of them at all ,Returning to the car I felt a bit of a plonker upon realising how close to the car they were. A wonder of prehistory hiding in the forest known only to a few . I liked it here a lot. |
Posted by postman3rd June 2007ce Edited 3rd June 2007ce |
| I am sure that these rock carvings are fading rapidly. If the elemants don't get them then the mentals will. Something needs to be done quickly in order to save these National Treasures. |
Posted by follow that cow23rd February 2006ce |
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With a close proximity to the road and the unfortunate location of neds'r'us (Aryshire branch) Ballochmyle feels doomed. The sheer disrespect of someone who feels compelled to carve their name onto such a unique and ancient piece of art is both astounding and deeply deeply depressing. Erosion so noticable around the bottom part of the wall will probably get it eventually if human folly, Buckfast and a closed mind don't get it first. It _is_ intially hard to find but once you know where it is you notice that there are paths to it. The one friendly local who went out of his way to show it to us left us with the dire warning 'don't tell anyone how to get to it or those kids will find out and destroy it'. Sadly this is so true. It would have been better if that fabled dog walker who discovered it had been turned back because the rain came on. On a happier note some of the vandalism seen on earlier pictures (black paint and crayon) seems to have been washed away. The sheer variety and frenzied activity of the two walls here, for me, denotes an extremely important site. It's just my opinion but I reckon this was a stopping point on a route around the area to other sacred sites, a 'station' if you will. For me this site far outstrips Achnabreck and Cairnbaan and is well worth a visit if only to scare the 'neds' off! |
Posted by wee_malky8th September 2003ce Edited 8th January 2004ce |
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I visited the Ballochmyle walls last summer with my partner and our two boys. We didn't have much clue as to where we were going - all we had was a road atlas and the directions in the Modern Antiquarian. This part of the Ayr valley is truly enchanted. The valley is narrow, deep and heavily wooded - these woods are ancient. The surrounding land outside and above the valley is rolling green pastureland, so when you descend into the valley you feel like this is just a different world. Our search for the walls turned into a true quest lasting an hour and a half of me scrambling around, losing, finding and losing the family. While searching, I was down by the river - it's deep and dark and goes slow beneath great red sandstone cliffs on either side with these little red beaches at your feet, and the green canopies high above and all around. There's also a huge red stone Victorian viaduct which straddles the valley nearby. What a feeling when we found the walls! They consist of 2 vertical cliff faces with a variety of cup / ring / animal and phallic symbols carved into the soft and brittle sandstone. The cliffs were only rediscovered less than 20 years ago, so their current exposure leaves the carvings vulnerable to erosion - before rediscovery they were covered in thick vegetation. The carvings are unusual, in that they are on vertical, not horizontal sheets, but quirks of a wider culture are understandable down there in that valley. Also not usual in Scotland(?) is the animal carvings - the only other possible prehistoric animal carving I've seen in Scotland was at Dunaad. You could spend all day here - the surroundings were warm and serene that day but the walls had a dark red drama that took our breath away. Our gameboy / pokemon obsessed boys were held in wonder and that was great to see. It's a bugger to find though and I can't shed much light on how we found it other than to take a better map than we had. -August 2002- Came back here with Norie of the pictures. I dont know if it's my imagination but the walls looked to have deteriorated a bit. And somebody has been at the carvings with a mix of charcoal, chalk and wax crayon. This kind of thing is bad enough on horizontal sheets of hard rock but to arse about with these walls is plain vandalism as the rock is crumbly sandstone and the rain wont get a chance to wash the crayon etc. away as these are vertical cliffs. It still remains a very special place but I felt pretty pissed off after this visit. |
Posted by winterjc 14th November 2001ce |
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| We travelled from the North on the A76. Just after the town of Mauchline we turned right onto a minor road (it's the last right turn before the A76 crosses the River Ayr). We parked a couple of hundred yards down this road. At this point there is a style on the right hand side of the road and a path then takes you over a grassy field then into the woods. Just into the woods you cross a little wooden bridge and just after that there is a rough path which goes up an embankment from the right hand side of the main footpath. Follow this rough path and persevere for a couple of hundred yards until you get to the walls. |
Posted by winterjc 10th November 2002ce |
Links |
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Ballochmyle on BRAC UpdatedBallochmyle on BRAC |
Posted by markj99 9th January 2021ce Edited 9th January 2021ce |
Extreme Stonefeelers' World of Hard Rock & Standing StonesPics of the rock art on Ballochmyle walls. |
Posted by new abbey 10th April 2010ce Edited 10th April 2010ce |
Ballochmyle on Brian Kerr PhotographyAll Images © Brian Kerr Photography © Rockartwolf |
Posted by rockartwolf12th April 2009ce |
Ballochmyle on BRAC |
Posted by rockartuk27th August 2006ce |
Mauchline-online.comdetails of a river walk (with directions) that goes past the cup-and-ring markings |
Posted by BigSweetie28th June 2005ce |
Ancient ScotlandA great photo - includes a baldy geezer with a crackin shirt. |
Posted by winterjc 10th November 2002ce |
ArchaeopticsA wonderful laser scan of one of the walls |
Posted by baza6th August 2002ce Edited 23rd November 2005ce |
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