Galloway is rich in 5000-year-old cup and ring carvings. At Drumtroddan such enigmatic memorials lie not so far away from equally enigmatic stones ca. 2000-1000 B.C.
Car parking available beside the farm Drumtroddan consists of two possibly connected features dating from the Bronze Age : a group of standing stones are about 400m from the cup and ring carved stones, and the summit of the Fell of Barhullion (surmounted by the remains of an Iron Age camp) may be the focus of this grouping. Cup and ring markings are common in Galloway, as also in Ireland, Brittany and north West Spain. They are marked on the Ordnance Survey maps, but please bear in mind that some are on farmland, where there may be no formal access agreements. You may also see cairns on various summits in the Machars, sometimes built by walkers or shepherds, but occasionally these are the remains of burial cairns, often robbed for field dykes and building materials.
According to an unbroken tradition dating from the earliest times and confirmed in the writings of the Venerable Bede in the 8th century, a holy man named Nynia, born among the British people, introduced the Christian faith into a significant part of the land now known as Scotland long before the coming of Saint Columba.
