drewbhoy
Never spied this before today, check how close the road is!
Image credit: drew/amj
Edintore is best described as a disgrace, I don’t care who’s to blame but something surely could have been done to save some of it.
Canmore describes it as badly mutilated. They where being kind. Nothing hardly remains, a slight rise in the ground with one or two stones poking their heads out. It would be better if this was flattened altogether than leave this shambles.
Apart from being a mud bath, one half planted in trees, 99% of stones removed (including perhaps a RSC), trampled to smithereens by cattle, man and machine have done the rest, there is always the view.......there isn’t............ more trees. As with Caird’s Wood, nearby, thankfully the Whiteleys aren’t far away.
Parked just short of Edintore farm at the trees which you can follow up hill until the gate. Turn west for the muddy swimming pool and knackered cairns. Keep going uphill for the Whiteleys.
Visited 7/06/2010.
I was told before that this cairn ‘wis in a fair state’. After the disaster of Edintore I shouldn’t have been surprised. From Edintore walk in a north easterly direction thru the mud bath following the young tree line until it meets the older trees.
It is impossible to say to much about this place as trees are planted on one side, there are barbed wire fences everywhere, machinery damage and in previous times cattle have trampled all over. At one time the views must have magnificent but like the cairn it has been obliterated by the trees.
It must have been over 14 meters wide and height is about 1 meter, even height is hard to tell because of the jabby things sitting on top. Thankfully the two other cairns at Whiteley are in far better condition.
Visited 7/05/2010.
These are all cup marks found on the descent of Oxen Craig on the South West. A new path has now been built which is much safer. I’ll put all the awkward finds from that date into these fieldnotes to save from adding sites.
Stone 1
Has 5 cup marks of varying sizes. Can be found at the bottom of the south western descent on the old path west.
Stone 2
On a ledge approx 1/2 way down towards the south east. 6 cup marks of varying size.
Stone 3
Possibly a massive cup mark on the first overhang of the descent.
Stone 4
On the next overhang another possible massive cup mark.
Stone 5
Two weather worn cup marks at the foot of the decent.
Stone 6
One well preserved cup mark, almost next to Stone 5.
Stone 7
4 different sized cup marks on a rock half way down. Fairly flat panel.
Stone 8
Has three different sized cup marks. Stone 7 is next to this one.
Stone 9
As the path levels out this is the first stone. 5 cup marks plus 3 weathered efforts.
Stone 10
A solitary cup mark to be found on a rock at the base of the descent.
Stone 11
Lying next to stone 10 this stone has 3 cup marks and one that is weathered.
Next time I go up I’ll take somebody who knows what they are talking about, but each of the peaks on Bennachie might have rock art. It is likely that there are hundreds more places on Oxen Craig with cup marks and I know for sure that Watch Craig has.........
Visited 3/06/2010.
Just a few meters on from the Oxen 1 is a piece of living rock with 3 good cups. Plus two well weathered efforts.
Visited 3/05/2010.
Near the cairn on Oxen Craig there is a socket possibly for a standing stone. On the same rock I counted 10 badly worn cup marks after pulling back some turf more were discovered. Probably more on this rock. Varying sizes of cup
Visited 3/06/2010.
On a rock just back from the edge overlooking Little Oxen Craig’s quarry. There are 8 badly weathered cup marks of various sizes.
Visited 3/06/2010.
Inverness project engineers find protected species and a prehistoric pot shard.
by Iain Rammage.
Published 3/06/2010.
pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1766008
What happened in Belfast now happens in Inverness.
Canmore report that two nearby cairns were destroyed during the 1850s on the top of North Kirkhill. Surprisingly they somehow missed this one. If they didn’t they’ve called it a different name for something on the same hill.
Anyway 5 kerbs remain in place. The cairn is almost 12 meters in width and at its highest would be 1 meter tall. Excavations or hollowing has occurred but it definitely still exists.
Leave Maud heading east on the B9029 taking the second minor road to lead south. Go past Benwells, scene of a destroyed cairn and possibly a circle, and pull in at the next farm track. (to Clackriach farm) The cairn is on top of the hill to the east. A short climb of a 1/4 mile. It was wonderful and warm today for a change! On the next hill east is Aikey Brae RSC.
Worth a look!
Visited 2/06/2010.
Heading north from Crimond take the first minor road east from the A90. The first farm, Netherton, has a complete RSC. At the next farm, Greengates (1/2 mile along the road), stop here. I asked permission from the current occupant, who rents the property, to park. He was astonished to learn that such a thing was so close to the house. He didn’t even know about Netherton or Berrybrae.
Once I was finished at being surprised I found the stone no more than 10 meters into a field containing the best behaved cows I’ve ever seen. The stone stands, a gray granite, at 11/2 meters and possibly is an outlier for the Netherton circle.
Visited 2/06/2010.