Read About Excavation Site

So is this just rock art or is there something else here?

This area was once an Iron Age hillfort. It would have commanded a very strong position and looked really impressive from the valley below.

But wasn’t the rock art here first?

Yes, the rock art was made at least 1000, maybe 2000 years before the hillfort. In fact, an excavation in the 1980s discovered that some of the walls were on top of the carvings.

So the Iron Age people didn’t really respect the rock art then.

Perhaps by building the fort on top of the rock art the Iron Age people may have believed that they were drawing on its power. There was a hut circle excavated which had a carved rock at the entrance way. It’s also possible that the carvings were convenient building material.

Did they uncover any rock art in the excavation?

They found a number of portable carved stones. They also found a hammer stone next to cup and ring marks, which might have been used to make rock art, but it’s impossible to know. Have you any thoughts about why this place was important to prehistoric people?

Well I’m guessing they didn’t play golf. But I’m sure this hill must have made them feel on top of the world and exhilarated. Just as I feel now!

There’s also a theory that rock art is found in places that are close to where the Gods or the Ancestors lived. Dod Law would fit this theory quite well.