of Edinburgh, Session 1871 - 72 . 
685 
from the top, and in that part of the stone there were only five or 
six cups discernible; plaster casts of these, however, were taken 
and sent to the Society of Scottish Antiquaries. No doubt was 
entertained by those who then examined the stone and the casts, 
that these cup cavities were artificial and not natural. 
About six years ago the late Sir James Simpson turned his atten¬ 
tion to the subject of these antique and mysterious cuttings and 
sculpturings, and drew out a memoir on the subject, illustrated by 
numerous lithographs, which was published by the Society of 
Antiquaries. 
Mr Herdman having heard of this inquiry, was induced to make 
a farther examination of the stone, and had some of the earth cleared 
away from its sides. He then discovered other hemispherical cavities 
sharper and more distinct than those in the higher and more ex¬ 
posed part of the stone, and which greater distinctness he natu¬ 
rally ascribed to the covering of earth by which they had been 
protected from the weather. He also on this occasion observed 
that there were grooves or ruts on the surface of the stone, in the 
parts which had been covered up, and which were prolonged 
into grooves on the upper part of the stone where they were more 
faint. 
It will be seen from the diagram,— -first, that on the middle of 
the stone and near the cups there are two long grooves, with a 
cross groove at two places; second, that at the right hand there is 
a zigzag groove; and third, that at the left hand there is a 
straight groove, running up vertically, but more faint than the 
others. The second and third of these grooves were only dis¬ 
covered lately, and in consequence of investigations for the Boulder 
Committee. 
"Whenever the discovery of these additional cups and grooves 
was made, Mr Herdman lost no time in sending an account of them 
to Sir James Simpson. But by this time his memoir had been 
printed ; and the only notice which appears in that memoir of 
the Grlenballoch Stone, is in the following terms, p. 15 :— 
11 Circle at Craighall , Perthshire .—Cup excavations exist upon an 
erect stone standing at a megalithic circle behind Craighall House, 
Blairgowrie. The cups are five or six in number, and placed in a 
group near the foot of the stone.’' 
4 Y 
VOL. VII. 
