Roughting Linn cup and ring marked stone. Photo by Northumberland County Council.

(NT 98383675) Cup and Ring marked Rock. [T.I.] (1)

A large rock bearing about sixty cup and ring markings. (2)

Scheduled. (3)

NT 98393673 Description correct See G.Ps AO/55/286/1 and 2 and AO/64/112/3 and 4. (4)

Condition unchanged. (5)

The rock slopes to the east. Part of it has been quarried away, and there is a big wedge of it missing. There is great variety of carving which makes it one of the best known rocks in the north. There are random cups, cup clusters, designs based on cups and grooves, and some unusual designs - delicate stems and flower-like shapes.

There is a great variety of carving which makes this rock one of the best known in the north. One strong group is a series of figures made up of cup, duct and concentric circles. (6)

(H00406) Roughting Linn. NT 983376. Large expanse of sandstone like a whaleback. Varied motifs. It was in danger of being quarried away, evidenced by places where the rock is missing. (7)

Description of carvings. (8)

NT 984 367. Cup and ring marked rocks near Roughting Linn camp. Scheduled No ND/65. (9a)

Roughting Linn H00406 NT 983 367
The western part has been quarried away, before 1850, and a large slab has been removed from across its width. There is still one cup and multiple circle motif on a surviving part to the west; although the south is gouged with mainly natural grooves, there cups and rings there too. Apart from its size and the fact that it just happened to be there, natural erosion on the southern part may have attracted artificial additions, a factor seen also at sites like Old Berwick. The decorated kerb concept is one shared with Irish Passage Grave art, although the circumstances are different, for this is undisturbed outcrop rock and not panels arranged in an artificial structure.
Much of the art is of the cup and ring type, quite deeply pecked, especially on the circumference; what is also so interesting about the way this rock has been used is that there is such a variety of motifs. Near the top of the dome slope are flower-like stems with heads made of a cup surrrounded by a ring. Some of these groves join each other, and some end in small cups. There are clusters of cups enclosed by grooves, interconnecting with other enclosed cups. There are, uniquely, nine radiates springing from the outer of two penannulars around a cup, itself connected to other figures. The southeast slope includes concentric inverted arcs, and a variation of the cup and ring theme is the use of parallel, six in the case of two linked figures. Erosion has taken its toll in a hollow to the southeast, but it has been possible to trace the nature of these figures. Slightly higher up the rock, above these, is by contrast a heavily-picked pair of concentric penannulars with a row of cups above that. The concentric grooves have been made by joining together separately-made cups; the division of these cups are still clear. (9b)