Baluachraig Rock Art

At Baluachraig, in a field at the south end of Kilmartin Glen, flat outcrops of dark rock are covered with prehistoric carvings probably about 5,000 years old. Most are cups, hollows pecked into the stone without metal tools, some surrounded by one or more rings, and there are dozens of them across the fenced outcrops. Why they were made is unknown; Historic Scotland suggests they may have marked long-established routes to pastures or hunting grounds, from a time when ritual monuments rather than settlements were the fixed points in the landscape. Kilmartin Glen has one of the greatest concentrations of carved rock and Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments anywhere in Scotland, and Baluachraig is one of its many carved outcrops. There is no parking of its own: use the small Dunchraigaig Cairn car park on the A816 and walk five to ten minutes through trees, over a small stream and along a field edge to a stile, in strong footwear.