Kilmartin Glen: Baluachraig Rock Art

The Baluachraig carvings are probably about 5,000 years old. The surrounding Kilmartin Glen contains a major concentration of rock art, and ceremonial, ritual and burial monuments. They all date to the Neolithic and Bronze Age, about 5,500 to 3,000 years ago.

Why the rock faces were carved remains a mystery. Perhaps they were on long-established routes through the landscape, possibly leading to pastures or hunting grounds. They may be related to a time when ritual monuments, rather than settlements, were fixed points in the landscape.

A rich prehistoric landscape survives in Kilmartin Glen, providing a tantalising insight into its prehistoric population. The surviving rock art along the glen is remarkable for the number of elaborately carved outcrops, the style of and extent of the carvings, and their close association with other prehistoric monuments. No other place in Scotland has such a concentration of prehistoric carved stone surfaces, and Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments.