Chatton
(Panel 2, 4 & 5)
Bronze Age Carved Rocks / Rock Art
Chatton, Northumberland. OS Map Refs - Panel 2 NU07562909,
Panel 4 NU07222939,
Panel 5 NU07632926
OS Maps - Landranger 75 (Berwick-upon-Tweed), Explorer 340 (Holy Island &
Bamburgh)
Chatton 2 or the 'TV Rock' is located at NU07562909 less than 30 metres to the north of the more complex carvings of Panel 1a. While it is a simple design it is intriguing none the less as it consists of a pair of concentric squares with concentric edges along with a groove extending from one of the side to form a rectangular appendage. The light colour of the bedrock and the angle of the sun made this design difficult to see and photograph on the day I visited, the inset interpretation gives a better idea of what the motif looks like. |
Panel 4 is in the curious position of the middle of a small hillfort or enclosure with no other stones around it. The carvings must have been obvious to the builders of the later fortification so we must wonder what significance it had to them or if the site of the fort was merely coincidence. Like the panel at the top of the page the lack of sunlight made some of the carving difficult to make out when I visited - the deep cup and ring filled with water to the upper left are clear enough but there is a complex carving to the immediate right that is almost invisible. The inset interpretation gives a rough idea of the design, a pair of cups each with three full or partial rings some of which link the two designs. From one of the cup and rings a gutter emerges and joins with a further meandering groove that partly encloses the pair. This whole carving is very faint when compared to the water-filled cup and ring and it is interesting to speculate that this was enhanced at a later date for the purpose of holding water or some other liquid. Was this enhancement done by the Iron Age builders of the hill fort? |
Chatton Panel 5 at NU07632926 looking south towards panel 1 and 2 (the small light patch before the land drops away). This lovely stone is located on a slight raised plateau to the north of panels 1 and 2 just before the land slopes away to the north and east. The carvings are fairly well preserved with the largest being a cup surrounded by four deep rings. Above it is a further small faint cup and ring and above that a pair of shallow rings are bisected by a horizontal groove - it's difficult to tell whether there is a shallow cup at the centre. |