128 Cup- and Ring- Marked Stones. [Sess. 



A few miles north from Brechin, in Forfarshire, the hill of 

 Catterthun ^ stands out prominently from the main range of 

 the Grampians, and though of no great elevation — being 

 under 1000 feet — commands a magnificent prospect. On 

 each of its two summits there is an ancient British fort, oval 

 in shape, and nearly 200 yards in length inside the inner- 

 most rampart. The fort on the east, or Brown Catter, con- 

 sists of four concentric walls of turf, still in good preservation. 

 On the west, or White Catter, the chief rampart is composed 

 of an immense aggregation of loose boulders, mostly of small 

 size, and now comparatively low and spread over a great 

 breadth. The outer fortifications of this fort are quite low — 

 ditch and dyke, with a few stones in the latter. The great 

 stone " ring," as it is called, forms a very prominent feature, 

 and can be seen from afar, like a great terrace along the hill- 

 top, and of a light-grey colour, — hence, no doubt, the name 

 " White Catter." In such an extensive fortification it is 

 quite natural to expect that there would be a correspondingly 

 large " altar-stone," or whatever it should be called. When 

 last I visited Catterthun there were not, as far as I can recol- 

 lect, any signs of excavations, but some must have been made 

 soon thereafter, for Miss C. Maclagan, in her remarkable work 

 on 'Hill Forts,' &c. (1875), tells us that excavations had 

 been made near the entrance, — at the east end, — disclosing 

 the fact that the now shapeless stone rampart had consisted 

 originally of two parallel walls, and bringing to light a great 

 slab about 6 feet long and 3 feet broad, but broken, and 

 having about sixty-three cups on it, arranged in rows and 

 groups. 



Now, whatever may have been the object or idea for which 

 these hollows were carved, such a stone seems worthy of its 

 place, and if we had before us only plain C2ij9-marked stones 

 like the Catterthun and Clava ones, we might be inclined to 

 agree entirely with Colonel Sconce and others, who believe 

 that these stones were used as sacrificial altars, and that the 

 cups or hollows were intended to receive some of the blood. 



^ The hill or fort of the Highland robbers. Catteran or Katcran, Highland 

 robbers, and thun is dun, a hill or fort. Another example of the interchangeable 

 d and th (as in fiord and^riA), but in the opposite direction, may be cited from 

 the same district, the North Esk being spoken of as the Nord Water. 



