There are few historical sites about which absolutely nothing is known:  even when folklore and tradition have little to say, there’s usually some carbon dating of organic remains that will yield a vague suggestion about who was buried there, or who used it, and when they might have lived.

But on a hillside above Lochgilphead in Argyll, an extraordinary place continues to resist the logic of science.

This is Achnabreck, where three outcrops of rock are covered in wonderful carved symbols.  Most are concentric circles, some with a straight line cutting through to the middle, sometimes overlapping, and varying in size from a few inches to three feet across;  around them, apparently at random, are cup-marks and occasionally spirals, and many are connected by lines cut into the rock.  Some of these straight lines look like glacial striations, but often they are crossed and overlaid with deeper grooves, either dividing or connecting the circles.

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The information signs at Achnabreck are candid about the mystery, suggesting that the symbols may have had some significance in rituals, at a time when people believed that “the landscape itself was alive and had powers of its own”.  I’ve got to say that this is something I still like to believe.   Visitors are invited to open their minds and draw their own inspiration about the site, and with these pH๏τographs I hope that you will enjoy doing the same.

There are three separate outcrops of carved rock at Achnabreck – although more may yet be hidden under the earth – and the walk there is a delight, especially on a crisp morning with the sunlight sparkling on forests of moss and thrushes singing from the oak woods.