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On many natural outcrops mainly in northern Britain there are carvings of abstract designs that were produced between 4 and 5,000 years ago. The more complex carvings often occupy spaces that have wide views, often in all directions and they can generally be seen from a great distance like some of the sites in Scotland and Northumberland.
Star shape in a ring (left of slab) and deep cup and rings at Ballochmyle, Ayreshire The motifs chiefly appear on exposed surfaces and are usually located on horizontal or gently sloping surfaces. The simplest motif, the cup mark, can often be surrounded by up to eight rings. The greater the number of rings, the more likely it is that designs will be joined together to form a more elaborate design such as the main outcrop at Weetwood Moor. Some complex designs can be found near to water such as the rock outcrop at Roughting Linn.
Rosette designs at Ormaig Other rarer motifs do exist, these include spirals, cups in rosette patterns, chevrons, grid and rectangular or square forms. It was in the 1820s when this early rock art was accepted to be significant and of historical importance rather than simple “doodles”. This was at the main site of Old Bewick.
There is a huge
variety of theories as to the meaning of the symbols, early
interpretations including records of burials, maps of ancient settlements
(round huts) and maps of the night skies. There have been many different
explanations as to the meaning of cupmarks alone. A popular one being the
pits surrounded by rings represented the sun, crescent shapes or single
rings suggested the moon and wavy lines the Milky Way.
Early
records of carved stones in Northern England A serious contribution to the study of rock art was by Alexander Thom in 1968. He showed that the circular and spiral patterns were carefully set out in fixed units of measure. This became his megalithic inch – 0.068 feet which is 1/40th of the megalithic yard (2.72 feet). He claimed the designs could be small-scale representations of stone circle geometry and suggested they carried information about their use as astronomical observatories. Rock art is also associated with monuments such as stone circles, standing stones and burial chambers. In many cases, such as the stones in the Kilmartin valley, the sites are on low ground surrounded by hills or the sides of a valley whereas the rock art panels in the landscape tend to be on higher ground where the site appears to have been specifically chosen so as to give uninterrupted views over the surrounding country. Sites we have visited have been selected and grouped together in a “subweb” to make it easier to view samples of the pages that specifically include rock art.
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Many
natural rocks and megalithic sites in parts of the UK are inscribed with
cupmarks and other symbols known as petroglyphs. The cup mark is the
simplest of these shapes, this is a shallow hollow, often surrounded by
circles or forming the centre of a spiral pattern. In some cases a line
has been inscribed from outside the design to the centre of the cupmark.
Similar designs have been found in Europe, America and Australia. 
