Cochno – revealed?

Much in the news this week has been the suggestion, reported in The Scotsman, that one of Glasgow’s hidden archaeological treasures might be revealed for the first time in 50 years. The Cochno Stone is widely regarded as the finest example of Neolithic rock art in Europe. With its numerous cup-and-ring markings, spirals, footprints and other symbols, it was believed by maverick archaeologist Ludovic McLellan Mann to represent nothing less than a star map created by the Neolithic peoples inhabiting the area. He felt strongly that it was connected with the nearby ‘mortuary site’ at Knapper’s Farm (now lost under … Continue reading Cochno – revealed?

Forgotten Footsteps

I have covered this before, but a recent change in the Google Maps API rendered my previous post on Harry Bell’s ‘Glasgow Network of Aligned Sites’ and ‘Forgotten Footsteps’ inoperative. After a bit of searching, I found an alternative maps plug-in that seems to work; however to make things easier it seems wise to make a separate post about Harry’s 1977 book Forgotten Footsteps, a work which now seems to have completely disappeared from the internet, apart from a couple of references on the Wayback Machine. Harry died in 2o01, and from what I can gather his descendants are not … Continue reading Forgotten Footsteps

The Devil’s Plantation – the movie!

Following the success of her interactive BAFTA award-winning web project on The Devil’s Plantation, and the subsequent IOS app, film-maker May Miles Thomas created a 93-minute film of the project earlier this year, cutting together her 60+ short clips of evocative black and white imagery and 800+ music and sound segments into a coherent whole, skilfully woven together with paired narratives from Kate Dickie and Gary Lewis telling the story of Mary Ross’s wanderings and Harry Bells’ research into the Glasgow Network of Aligned Sites. “In the 1980s archaeologist Harry Bell came to believe that Glasgow – a city built … Continue reading The Devil’s Plantation – the movie!

The De’il’s Plantin – reloaded

I spent a few hours this afternoon revisiting my Google Earth placemark of the Glasgow Network of Aligned Sites. When I originally started plotting Harry Bell’s sites I had a lot of difficulty due to the low resolution photo coverage in Google Earth at the time. This resulted in a degree of confusion, particularly in the Castlemilk and Carmunnock areas, where sites were misplaced and a couple of alignments omitted completely as I just couldn’t pin things down accurately enough. However, the photographic coverage has improved immensely in the last year or two, and so I managed to resolve my … Continue reading The De’il’s Plantin – reloaded

The De’il’s Plantin

Back in 2007, I was working on producing a Google Earth placemark file for the BSD Earth Energies Group website, of places on the ‘Glasgow Network of Aligned Sites’, based on the books ‘Glasgow’s Secret Geometry’ and ‘Forgotten Footsteps’ by the late Harry Bell. As I was putting the finishing touches to the file, I came across a press release about May Miles Thomas, an artist and film-maker who had received a Creative Scotland award to produce a project based around the books. Excited by this synchronicity, I sent her a copy of the file to help her get started. … Continue reading The De’il’s Plantin