Tongue Croft

Nearest town:
Kirkcudbright (8km ENE)
OS reference:
NX603484
OS sheet:
83
Latitude:
54° 48' 38.72 N
Longitude:
4° 10' 26.59 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Tongue Croft (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art) by Howburn Digger

A brief spark of sunshine between dark skies gave us a huge double rainbow hanging high as we drove out of Borgue. When we got to the rock art I managed to get the last glimmer of one arc as it faded...

Image credit: Howburn Digger
Howburn Digger
Howburn Digger Oct 22, 2011
Image of Tongue Croft (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art) by Howburn Digger

Some flukey, bright sunshine and blue, blue skies for a quick stop at Tongue Croft.

Image credit: Howburn Digger
Howburn Digger
Howburn Digger Oct 22, 2011
Image of Tongue Croft (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art) by rockartwolf

Picture taken by Mr J Henderson the schoolmaster at Borgue Schoolhouse in 1949 after being made aware of the carving by one of his pupils.

Image credit: Mr J Henderson
rockartwolf
rockartwolf Jan 7, 2007

Articles

Tongue Croft

Hob
Hob Aug 26, 2005

A patch of overgown outcrop about 2m from the road. It’s just by the steam, directly below the telegraph pole. I spotted 2 sets of carvings, quite clear they are too. Only got pics of the top one on the flat the other is below it, to the left as you’re looking towards the road. It surprised me to see a cup with 5 rings, yet the overall diameter was only about 30cm. Quite a tightly executed bit of rock art, precision stuff, very discrete. Especially when compared to the larger, more easily visible 5 ring motifs that exist in Northumberland and Argyll. They’re so neatly done, I couldn’t quite convince myself that they weren’t incised, rather than pecked.

It’s almost in a different ‘tradition’ entirely. Made me think about the theories that RA was intended for a limited audience, and that needing to know the location of a panel was an integral part of the meaning of the things. Allegedly, the more complex a motif, the smaller the intended/permitted audience.

The Ordnance Survey and Garmin have seriously undermined that aspect of these enigmatic carvings, but even with the internet adding to this effect (NX 6033 4836), ‘limited audience’ is probably still quite applicable. I reckon it’s just nice to know they’re still where they’ve always been, even after all these years.

Sites within 20km of Tongue Croft

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