Vol 5 - Dumfriesshire & Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian ...

—Transactions 47Some two hundred yards to the south-west of tliis ridge ofrocks at High Banks, we stand in the midst of the turf-hiddenmultitudinous middens and shapeless walls of the once well-to-dovillage of Galtway (locally called " The Gatta"). On a smallprojecting and flat piece of coarse-grained sandy whinstone, wefind an interesting type of petroglyph (shown in PI. V., Fig. 2).It contains a cup 1 in. in diameter, round this an incompletecircle 4 in. in diameter, round this a second incomplete circle6^ in. wide, and lastly, an arc of above the third of a circle,which, if complete, would have a diameter of 11 inches. This isa noticeable sculpture, as there is no doubt, on examining therock, that these segments were cut and left incomplete. Thereai-e other sculptures on the site of " The Gatta," but all of theordinary cup and ring type.The next rock-surface visited contains a highly interestingsculpturing, discovered by Mr Hornel. It lies nearly at thesummit of a wooded and rocky hill called Knockshinnie, some300 feet above sea-level, and within a mile of the sea itself.Nearly half-way between it and the Dunrod rock-markings is thesite of the old Castle of Drummore. The design of this petroglyphis shown on PL V., Fig. 1.It is rather too vague to admitof an elaborate fac-simile being made, but its prominent featuresare these—Four concentric rings with central cup and a muchlarger cup between the circumferences of the two outer ringsprecisely the arrangement noticed above on one of the Dunrodrocks. It occurs also on the Rhynie stone (mentioned by MrJolly in the paper above referred to), with this difference that thering-line cuts the cup in halves.There is also a simple cup, witha semi-circle above it, at the higher or south-east extremity ofthis curious design ; and the irregularity of the long groove andof the concentric rings, together with the extremely worn andobliterated state of this entire group of markings, lead one tofancy tliis may have been an early work indeed of thisancientschool of design. Below this part of the hill, on rocks in theliome-fields of Balmae, north of the house, are isolated examplesof plain cups and cups with single rings, one of these cups beingof the unusual diameter of 5 inches. Quite close to the outhousesat Balmae, I found a very clear and prominent piece ofcutting. (See PI. V., Fig 3.) The rings are a little irregular,but the cups quite circular, grooves and cups being somethingunder one-third of an inch deep. This is remarkable for having