Around 37 carved stone balls have been found in Highland Region (Datasheet 5.4; Map 5.4). Thanks to careful investigations by Hugo Anderson-Whymark – including matching casts with originals and resolving duplicate records – it has been possible to correct errors in the existing databases, including the HER. Most carved stone balls have been found along the eastern side of the Highland Region, where the distribution pattern links this area both with the epicentre of carved stone ball distribution in and around Aberdeenshire and with Orkney, where several have been found, most recently at Ness of Brodgar (Marshall 1977; 1983; Edmonds 1992; Card et al 2020).
Click on the data point for more information about the find and a link to the HER record. This map is based on the information in Datasheet 5.4 (please note that some finds in this datasheet may be missing from the map, for example where there are no co-ordinates for antiquarian finds, so please view the datasheet for the further information).
In common with most examples found elsewhere, the Highland Region carved stone balls are ‘stray finds’ with no obvious archaeological context. The one claimed exception is the example from Bruachaig, Ross and Cromarty (MHG6304; Forrest 2007), which was found in 1898, allegedly in a cist that contained a Beaker. The account comes from the descendants of the finder and, as with all old finds and accounts that are passed down several generations, caution needs to be exercised as the reliability of the account cannot be guaranteed. If the ball was genuinely been found inside the cist and not nearby, it would constitute a unique instance of an object from an earlier period being incorporated within a Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age cist. Several carved stone balls have been found in locations subsequently used as churches or churchyards. One from Achness, Sutherland (MHG11881) was found when a grave was dug, and another was found in rubble infilling part of Tarbat Old Church, Easter Ross (MHG8475). Other findspots include in Thurso River (MHG1471), in the vicinity of a stream in Stoer, north-west Sutherland (MHG12252), and in high places such as Ben-a-Chielt, Caithness (MHG1129); Beinn Tharsuinn (Ben Tharson), Easter Ross (MHG8168) and Tomnahurich (Tom-na-Hurich) Inverness (MHG3803).
A much-discussed category of artefact, mired in popular notions of ‘enigma’ and ‘mystery’, carved stone balls are likely to date to the same date bracket as the maceheads and, like them, these could well have been both weapons and weapons of social exclusion. The probable use of balls and/or maceheads as weapons is clear from examples of blunt force trauma found on skulls found in chamber tombs in Orkney and at Strathglebe, Skye (see Sheridan’s Rhind lectures)
As for whether they were imported to the Highland Region, or whether any were made in the Region, research by Hunterian Museum geologist John Faithfull as part of the doctoral research by Christopher Stewart-Moffatt will identify the rock types used, and the publication of Stewart-Moffatt’s thesis is awaited to see what conclusions have been drawn. As with maceheads, the use of erratic cobbles is a clear possibility in at least some cases. Research by Hugo Anderson-Whymark has confirmed that by no means were all carved stone balls were made in and around Aberdeenshire; some were made in Orkney, and a few were made in the Outer Hebrides. It is suspected, however, that most of the examples found in the Highlands are imports from elsewhere, possibly Aberdeenshire. In any case, their presence in the Highland Region confirms the interactions between the inhabitants of this region and their neighbours to the north and to the southeast in the centuries around 3000 BC. This suggests that Highland society at the time was not wholly egalitarian.