Abhainn na Sròine is the name of the river that runs into the bay, Poll a' Cheo. The chambered cairn, Cladh Chlainn Ian, lies alongside it just above an old cliff line.
Provides a readable interpretation of the sequence of rock carving on the outcrop arising from an excavation by Clive Waddington in 2004.
Rock surfaces carved in the early Neolithic (Phase 1) were later partially quarried and new symbols applied to the exposed surfaces. The Phase 2 carvings are more varied but more crudely executed and take less account of the rock surface. Shortly after they were made, it is likely that they were covered by a cairn incorporating an Early Bronze Age burial cist positioned in a cleft between massive slabs of quarried rock, some with the ancient cup and ring markings. At a much later stage, the outcrop and cairn was embedded into field boundaries of the Iron Age or Romano-British period which may have been partly protective from more extensive quarrying.
The changes in carving between the two phases may imply that the original significance had been lost by the Bronze Age but the power of an already ancient place was adopted to provide a ceremonial monument for the dead.
The "Picasso" face carving. Knew I'd seen it somewhere.
"... it is believed that the newly-discovered mystery marks could be much younger, with the heart and the face shapes potentially as little as 100-250 years old."
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