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Wisp

Natural Feature(S) (Period Unknown)

Site Name Wisp

Classification Natural Feature(S) (Period Unknown)

Canmore ID 53012

Site Number NT30SE 3

NGR NT 3773 0011

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/53012

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Scottish Borders, The
  • Parish Teviothead
  • Former Region Borders
  • Former District Roxburgh
  • Former County Roxburghshire

Archaeology Notes

NT30SE 3 3773 0011.

(NT 3773 0011) Cup and Ring Marks (NR) Sculptured Rock (NAT)

OS 6" map (1923)

"Cup-marked" Stone, Wisp. This stone lies prone near the left bank of the Wrangway Burn, 650 yds nearly due S of Wisp. It is an irregularly bean-shaped slab of very hard, fine, greywacke grit, measuring 7 ft 3 in by 5 ft 4 in in greatest length and breadth and 8 in in thickness, and showing traces of chipping around its margins. The stone is deeply scored by grooves, respresenting three different systems of geological jointing, and its surface bears a large number of cup-shaped hollows, mostly circular and measuring about 3 in. in diameter but some oval and measuring up to 4 in by 3 in and 1 1/2 in in depth. Some are confluent. The marked area has been reduced by superficial splitting to dimensions of about 5ft. by 4 ft. Although the OS map notes "Cup & Ring Marks", the artificiality of the hollows is most questionable and there are no vestiges of any rings.

Mr R Eckford of the British Geological Survey, who examined the stone, was unable to give a positive opinion as to whether the hollows were natural or not; the material not being conglomeratic, they could not be due to the dissolving-out of pebbles, but he noted that other boulders in the vicinity bore similar hollows which were clearly not artifical but which must be due to weathering assisted by the chemical action of mosses. These hollows, however, were in general smaller than those seen on the slab, and in consequence the possibility that the latter are, after all, artificial cannot be wholly ruled out.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 1950

The stone is as described by RCAHMS.

Visited by OS (EGC) 19 July 1962

References

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