Historic Enviroment Scotland logo
Scotland Rock Art logo
Login/Register
Search Database
My Folder

Rock Art Database

LOCHAN HAKEL

View PDF
Canmore ID 5375 SCRAP ID 2380
Location OS Grid Ref: NC 56990 52654 Team Not in team
Existing Classifications
Classification Period
CUP AND RING MARKED ROCK PREHISTORIC
Date Fieldwork Started 17/10/2019 Date Fieldwork Completed
New Panel? No  

Section A. CORE INFORMATION

A1. Identifiers

Panel Name LOCHAN HAKEL Number
Other names
HER/SMR SM Number SM1806 Other
Classifications And Periods
Classification 1 Cup And Ring Marked Stone Period 1 Neol/bronze Age
County
SUTHERLAND

A2. Grid Reference(original find site)

OS NGR NC 56990 52640
New OS NGR NC 56990 52654
Lat/Long 58.4387 -4.45142
Obtained By: Mobile Phone

A3. Current Location & Provenance

Located
  • At original location
Accession no. Not given

Section B. CONTEXT

B1. Landscape Context

Weather Sunny
Position in landscape Hillside
Topography(terrain within about 500m of panel.) Undulating
Aspect of slope (if on sloping terrain e.g. S, SE etc.) NW

B2. Current land use & vegetation

  • Moorland
  • Bog/Marsh

B3. Forestry

  • No selection

B4. Archaeological Features within 200m / or visible from the panel

  • No selection
Other: Crannog?

B5. Location Notes

The panel is a large flat-topped erratic boulder perched on a low cliff/bank at the S edge of Lochan Hakel. The lochan lies in a hollow in undulating moorland country. Near the panel it is shallow and there is an island (a possible crannog) less than 50m away. To the S the view is dominated by the jagged peaks of Ben Loyal (764m) about 4km away.

Previous Notes

NC55SE 5 5699 5264. (NC 5699 5264) Cup and Ring Stone (NR) OS 6" map (1961) A large earth-fast boulder whose flat upper surface bears thirty-four cup-marks of which eleven are surrounded by rings. Eight of the markings are well-defined and of these the clearest is 3ins. across by 1 1/4ins. deep with a ring 7ins. in diameter. Local tradition says the markings were made by the high heels of a fairy who lived nearby. RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909; J Horsburgh 1870 A large, weathered cup and ring marked rock as described. Visited by OS (JLD) 22 April 1960 No change to RCAHMS report. Visited by OS (JM) 11 October 1978 NC 56995 52642 Cup and ring marked stone surveyed as part of survey in the Lochan Hakel area carried out by students from University of Aberdeen in July 2006. J Kirby, D Marquardt, H MacFarlane and S Duthie 21 April 2007

Section C. PANEL

C1. Panel Type

In the landscape Boulder/Slab

C2. Panel Dimensions, Slope & Orientation

Dimensions of panel (m to one decimal place)
Length (longer axis) 2.8 Width 1.3
Height (max) 2.4 Height (min) 0
Approximate slope of carved surface
10 degrees degrees
Orientation (Aspect e.g. NW)
Rock Surface S Carved Surface S Carved Surface

C3. Rock Surface

Surface Compactness Hard Grain Size Very Coarse Visible Anomalies Other
Other: Knobbly with garnets 		Rock Type Gneiss

C4. Surface Features

  • Fissures/cracks
  • Rough surface

C5. Panel Notes

The panel measures 2.8 x 1.3m with a maximum height of 2.4m. The carved surface covers the flat top of the panel and slopes very gently to the S. The rock is a garnet gneiss, comprising a mass of large (0.5 to 1.0cm) degraded garnets, which are hard and weather to give the rock a knobbly surface. The smaller western part of the surface is divided from the rest by a straight N-S crack, and has an approximately rectangular area 0.3m x 0.2m as the rock around it has been carved away - there are no cup marks in this area. The larger eastern part of the surface has 15 cups, 1 larger shallow cup, 10 cups with single rings, some of which are deeply incised, 3 cups with partial single rings, and 2 cups with single rings and a radial to the N. One of the cups with a partial ring is on the very E edge of the carved area and is deeply incised and different in character to the others.

C6. Probability

The probability that there is any rock art on the panel is Definite

Comments

No comments added

C7. MOTIFS

Cupmark
cupmark_1 cupmark_7
15 1
Cup and Rings
cup_and_ring_1 cup_and_ring_5
10 2
Partial Ring
partial_ring_arc_3
3

Visible Tool Marks? No

Visible Peck Marks? No

Section D. ACCESS, AWARENESS & RISK

D1. Access

  • Right to Roam access.
  • Panel is on Private land.

D2. Awareness

  • Panel was known before the project.
There are stories or folk traditions associated with this panel No

D3. Risk

Natural
  • Large areas of the rock are covered in lichen, moss or algae.
  • There are shrubs growing on the rock surface.
Animal
Human
  • The rock is located on/nearby a path or place where people might walk.
Comments and other potential threats

A slight track follows the shore of the lochan. The carved surface is not visible from the track.