Getting a bit mossed up this panel. Still awesome.
Images
I like the pecking in the upper ring on this motif, it gives it a lovely texture.
Rich pasture on High Banks. October 14 2018.
High Banks October 14 2018.
If your failing legs and ailing back simply cannot carry you out to the real High Banks, you can always view this delightful concrete effigy outside the Stewartry Museum in Kirkudbright.
“For Jan”
This is for my good friend Jan Brouwer
http://www.briankerrphotography.co.uk
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http://www.briankerrphotography.co.uk
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http://www.briankerrphotography.co.uk
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http://www.briankerrphotography.co.uk
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http://www.briankerrphotography.co.uk
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For more information on high banks please contact me
I think this angle may have been missed by all the other contributors... ;o)
29-5-05. Moss Offerings.
29-5-05
Placed near the panels... map of the area?
29-5-05. “Before”
10/03. Paw print.....
10/03.
Articles
Visited High Banks today with a large group of enthusiasts both local and from further afield. The rock art assemblages appear to still be in good condition compared to images from some years back.
We were very lucky to have a gorgeous afternoon to wander over cattle-free pastures!
The track from the main road is quite rough in places, and the fields you cross can be pretty boggy.
The model of the site on a plinth in front of it is difficult to reconcile with the actual site, possibly because some of the panel is overgrown?
Our visit was made more interesting by helicopter gunships doing live firing on the range nearby!
High Banks and Druids?
Although I am local to High Banks (live in Castle Douglas 10 miles away) until I read ‘Hornel : The Life and Work of E.A. Hornel: Bill Smith: Atelier Books: Edinburgh: 1997, I did not know thay had inspired a painting by Hornel called ‘The Druids: Bringing in the Mistletoe’ – now in the Kelvingrove museum in Glasgow.
Following is the story – for fuller version see my greengalloway blogsite for July 2006 (post inspired by listening to newly discovered early Pink Floyd tracks – Jan 1967 version of Interstellar Overdrive)...
Go back to about 1889. On an outcrop of rock above High Banks farm steading near Kirkcudbright a set of ‘cup and ring’ rock carvings were found. Local (and Glasgow) artist Edward Hornel went to see them and then visited an old man called Sinclair who knew where more of the markings could be found:
Sinclair took from a shelf a small china bowl in which was a small bluish stone. Holding this in his hand, in a few minutes he seemed to go off in a sort of trance, and then began to describe, like a wireless announcer today [i.e. 1939], a vision of a procession of priests with sacred instruments and cattle which somehow were connected with the cup-and ring markings... [from A.S. Hattrick: A Painter’s Pilgrimage Through Fifty Years :1939: 60/61 in Bill Smith: Hornel: 1997: 59]
This inspired E.A. Hornel & George Henry to paint The Druids: Bringing in the Mistletoe – now in the Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow. Note : Google image search on “Hornel Druids” brings up several images of painting.
Hornel lived (until his death in 1933) at Broughton House in Kirkcudbright. Here he built up a library of 25 000 local interest books (inc. a huge section on Burns). He also had a cast made of the High Banks cup and ring markings for the Stewartry Museum, also in Kirkcudbright – can still be seen there.
29-5-05
The road to the farm looks very rough – we weren’t sure whether it was wise to go up – but glad we did because it was quite a way and there was an actual car park at the top!!
Well sign-posted, over two stiles through open farmland which this day was home to some very excitable young bullocks.
I was initially disappointed with this site, because maybe my hopes had been built up, but like Fitz and Stubob before, this was a “must do” and justifiably so. The panel was very overgrown....
Maybe cups are for growing offerings to the great god of moss.
Stu and I were in total agreement when it came to selecting sites that we must get to on this trip.
High Banks was a must.
Sometimes you try not to anticipate a site because it may fail to live up to your expectations but this isn’t the case with High Banks.
Drive all the way to High Banks Farm you can park and the footpath to the rocks is marked. As you climb the hill you can see the outcrop in front of you. There’s a small quarry in the outcrop and a modern plaque has been placed on a plinth.
The carvings are breathtaking and increase in complexity as you move along the rock.
As well as the multitudes of cups and lovely rings there are pecked out channels that appears more broader than what you would expect. The large carving with the grouped cups and large central cup and rings uses the contour of the rock to increase it’s visual and textural impact. It looks like a partially exposed fossil Ichthyosaur skull.
This is rock art taken to another level. This is a well designed motif which I would like to think was the work of one person, a dude/ette who got fed up with cups and rings and decided to produce something a bit more contemporary.
I bet all his mates took this piss out of him for it too!
This is one site that you should definitely see and feel.
High Banks on BRAC
Druid Landscapes
Excellent blog on the history of this rock art.
Pics of the cup and ring maps plus frisky bullocks.
An image of a panel at Pazos de Borbén (Pontevedra) displaying a similar theme to the highly unusual motifs at High Banks.
Here are some nineteenth century journal articles about the carvings (online at Archway). They include lots of lovely illustrations.
Notices of Rock-Sculpturings of Cups and Circles in Kirkcudbrightshire. George Hamilton. v21 (1886-7)
ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_021/21_151_164.pdf
Notice of additional groups of carvings of cups and circles on rock surfaces at High Banks, Kirkcudbrightshire. George Hamilton. v23 (1888-9).
ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_023/23_125_130.pdf
A little on p81/2
Coles, Fred R. A Record of the Cup-and Ring-Markings in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.
vol 29 1894-5.
ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_029/29_067_091.pdf
And this is about some cairns that were excavated not far away, ‘Notice of the Excavation of two Cairns containing cists and Urns at Woodfield, on the Farm of Highbanks, Parish of Kirkcudbright. ’ Another by George Hamilton, in v25 (1890-91). ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_025/25_024_028.pdf
A really nice site which gives reliable directions to many sites.
Topics
Sites within 20km of High Banks
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Galtway
photo 3 description 1 link 1 -
Galtway 5
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Galtway 7
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Galtway 18
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Castlecreavie
photo 7 description 1 link 1 -
Bombie 5
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High Grange 1
photo 13 forum 1 -
Castlecreavie
photo 15 -
Castlecreavie Dun
photo 5 -
Bombie 1
photo 5 -
Bombie 2
photo 18 -
Bombie
description 1 link 2 -
High Grange 2
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Bombie 3
photo 9 -
Bombie 4
photo 3 -
Milton
photo 87 link 2 -
Townhead
photo 44 forum 2 description 3 link 2 -
Newlaw Hill 1
photo 16 description 1 -
Newlaw Hill 2
photo 3 -
Newlaw Hill 3
photo 17 link 2 -
Grange 3
photo 8 description 2 link 1 -
Grange 1
photo 2 link 2 -
Grange 2
photo 2 link 1 -
Blackhill Cottage
photo 3 link 2 -
Dunrod
photo 1 link 1 -
Culdoach
photo 18 description 2 link 2 -
Drummore
photo 8 description 3 link 1 -
Drummore Castle
photo 3 description 1 link 1 -
Torrs 1 & 2
photo 11 link 1 -
Knockshinnie
photo 10 link 1 -
Knockshinnie 2
photo 8 -
Torrs 7
photo 1 link 1 -
Torrs 4
photo 7 link 1 -
Torrs 3b
photo 1 -
Torrs 3
photo 8 description 2 link 2 -
Torrs
photo 5 description 1 link 2 -
Balmae 35
photo 1 link 2 -
Torrs 10
photo 1 forum 1 link 1 -
High Nunton
photo 4 description 1 -
Senwick 1
photo 5 -
Ingle Stone
photo 3 description 1 -
Clauchendolly
photo 51 description 1 link 2 -
Clash
photo 8 description 1 link 2 -
Nether Linkens
photo 8 forum 1 link 1 -
Arden Fort
photo 4 description 1 link 2 -
Park of Tongland
photo 4 description 4 link 1 -
Senwick 4
photo 8 -
Borgue
photo 5 link 1 -
The Doon (Twynholm)
photo 5 description 1 link 1 -
Brighouse Standing Stone
photo 5 link 1 -
Auchenhay
photo 2 -
Park of Tongland
forum 1 description 1 -
Slagnaw
photo 3 -
Big Airds Hill
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Tongue Croft
photo 16 description 1 link 1 -
White Cairn, Gelston
photo 2 description 1 link 1 -
Little Airds Hill
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Castle Haven
photo 5 description 1 -
Glengap House
link 1 -
Giant’s Dike
photo 5 description 1 link 1 -
Lodge Of Kelton Farm
photo 9 -
Trusty’s Hill
photo 8 description 2 link 3 -
Harper’s Hill
photo 9 description 1 -
Carlingwark Loch
photo 4 forum 1 description 3 -
Torrs Hill
link 1 -
Rutherford’s Well
photo 4 description 2 link 1 -
Court Hill
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Rutherford’s Witnesses
photo 4 description 2 -
Lagganmullan 8
photo 10 description 1 -
Lagganmullan 9
photo 6 -
Lagganmullan 10
photo 3 -
Lagganmullan 1
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Lagganmullan House
photo 1 link 2 -
Ernespie Standing Stones
photo 9 description 1 -
Lagganmullan 2
photo 6 -
Newton Farm
description 1 -
Lagganmullan 4
photo 13 -
Lagganmullan 6
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Lagganmullan 7
photo 2 -
Lagganmullan 7a
photo 5 -
Lagganmullan 7b
photo 3 -
Lagganmullan 7d
photo 5 -
Lagganmullan 7c
photo 2 -
Lagganmullan 3
photo 4 -
Mossyard 6
photo 5 description 1 link 1 -
Newton Farm
photo 1 description 2 -
Newton Farm Burial Chamber
photo 9 description 2 link 1 -
Lagganmullan 5
photo 2 -
Mossyard 1
photo 6 description 1 link 2 -
Mossyard
photo 15 description 2 link 4 -
Upper Newton 3
photo 4 -
Upper Newton 2
photo 5 -
Laggan Farm
photo 2 link 1 -
Whiteside
photo 2 link 1 -
Upper Newton 1
photo 3 link 1 -
Upper Newton 4
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High Auchenlarie
photo 19 description 1 -
Kirkclaugh
photo 1 forum 1 link 1 -
High Auchenlarie
photo 7 forum 1 description 1 -
Kirkclaugh
photo 1 -
Colvend
link 1 -
Newbarns North
photo 15 forum 1 -
Newbarns South
photo 13 -
Bardristane 3
photo 3 -
Bardristane 4
photo 6 -
Cairnharrow
photo 14 forum 1 description 1 link 3 -
Bardristane 1
photo 4 link 1 -
Cairnharrow
photo 7 description 3 link 1 -
Barholm 3
photo 1 link 1 -
Barholm 2
photo 1 -
Cairnholy Cairn
photo 3 description 1 link 1 -
Cairnholy 03
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Cairnholy
photo 114 forum 3 description 15 link 9 -
Cairnholy 01 & 02
photo 6 forum 1 description 1 link 1 -
Cauldside Burn Cairn
photo 7 link 1 -
Cauldside Burn
photo 9 description 2 link 1 -
Cauldside Burn Stone Setting
photo 2 description 1 link 1 -
Cauldside Burn Cairn North
photo 2 description 1 link 1 -
Kirkdale House
photo 1 forum 1 link 1 -
Barholm 1
photo 1 -
Cairnholy 10
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Cairnholy 06
photo 1 -
Cambret Moor
photo 8 description 3 link 1 -
Cambret Moor
photo 10 description 1 link 1 -
Redcastle
photo 5 description 1