Scottish Rock Art – and a future South Loch Ness Archaeology Group?

Following our usual brief AGM on Tuesday 15th November, we enjoyed a most interesting presentation by John Wombell on Scottish Rock Art.   John is a member of the North of Scotland Archaeological Society, and showed us many fascinating slides of ‘rock art’, mainly from the Scottish Highlands.   Rock art can take many forms, but the most widespread examples are cup and ring marks, gouged out of either bedrock or separate boulders using a ‘chisel’ of harder rock.   However, more elaborate artwork can also be found, all performed in the same way.   This rock art all dates from Neolithic, or later Stone Age times, roughly six to eight thousand years ago.   Many of the examples John showed us were from Ross-shire, but he takes the view that South Loch Ness probably has many as-yet undiscovered sites.

Since the meeting, John has emailed the following:-  “Your group showed plenty of interest, and the North of Scotland Archaeological Society are here to help in a new Scottish Project.   Trina (John’s wife) suggests that we offer your group a ‘rock art familiarisation’ walk either around here (Easter Ross) where access is good, or somewhere else we can agree on.   Otherwise we really should come and see some of your sites, and a joint outing might go down well with the active members of the NOSAS, if you would like to suggest something”.

Heather Macleod, our treasurer, is very interested, and it’s suggested that anyone who would like to form an archaeology group, researching not just rock art but other evidence of our more distant past, should first of all get in touch with her at heather-macleod@btconnect.com   As John says, he and the NOSAS will give us plenty help and encouragement.