In 2025, ScARF ran three consultation workshops, funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, with the aim of identifying national and regional research priorities, questions and recommendations specifically for prehistoric rock art in Scotland. To feed into regional frameworks being developed at that time, the workshops were held in Faifley (CVARF region), Kirkcudbright (SWSARF region), and Culloden (Highland region). Each workshop was attended by 30-50 people from the local community, including heritage professionals, independent specialists and interested members of the public. At each workshop, attendees were organised into three break-out groups. The breakout group discussions were structured around key themes from the Future Thinking on Carved Stones in Scotland framework: Creating Knowledge and Understanding; Securing for the Future; Engaging and Experiencing.
Following a final workshop at Kilmartin Museum in May 2026, which brought together specialists and local community members, feedback was requested to refine and endorse the research recommendations set out below.
Creating Knowledge and Understanding
When, how and why was Atlantic Rock Art created in Scotland?
- What is the origin of rock art in Scotland and how quickly did it spread?
- Who created the rock art? Were these individual or community activities, and were the motifs created seasonally or associated to specific rituals or events?
- Was there a demographic divide regarding those who could created or use rock art?
- Where did rock art originate and spread from?
Explore the nature and character of Atlantic Rock Art, the main designs, motif preferences, where it was created and what patterns emerge.
- What patterns of motifs can be identified in rock art and which types of designs were more commonly used?
- Were motifs only created on one rock surface, or are there examples where several parts of the rocks were decorated?
- Was rock art creation a seasonal activity?
- Are there local or regional differences in the rock created across Scotland?
- Are there more carvings of figurative motifs such Kilmartin’s axeheads and zoomorphs, and if so where should we look for them?
- Which are the areas least researched for rock art, and what are the patterns of preservation and survival or carvings?
- Do we know all of the existing rock art sites or are there more panels left to be found?
Determine the currency of Atlantic Rock Art, when it originated, the main period of creation and use, and when it stopped being made. Explore the afterlife of Atlantic Rock Art and how people engaged with it in subsequent periods.
- How old is prehistoric rock art in Scotland?
- Can we improve our understanding and knowledge of chronology by developing and applying new dating methods to better understand the rock art’s time depth, when it was created, and if it was produced over a single period, and/or its potential phases of use?
- Did increase in sedentism impact the creation of rock art and eventually lead to the disappearance of the practice.
- How was rock art re-used (e.g. Pictish stones, souterrains, dykes), and in which contexts did this re-use occur?
- What does the repurposing of carvings tells us about relationships with the past and the ancestors?
Investigate the making process of rock art and explore the different techniques and tools employed in the creation of the motifs.
- How was rock art created and what kind of techniques were used?
- Was one panel created by a single person or was it the work of several people across a longer period of time?
- Can experimental archaeology enhance understanding of rock art’s making processes and help determine how the carvings were made, how long would it take to create them, and which tools and carving techniques were employed in its production?
- Were carvings painted as well as carved?
- Were there practice panels?
Understanding the meaning of rock art, why it was created and what for.
- Why was rock art created and what was it for? Was it for artistic or utilitarian purposes (e.g. to mark routes and boundaries), for ceremonial or ritual reasons?
- How was rock art used once created?
- Was rock art a language or a means of communication?
- Can archaeological excavations of rock art provide more detail regarding the kinds of activities which would have been developed around and in relation to the panels?
- Was rock art part of a wider performative act, and what was the role of visual and acoustic behaviours as part of the end-result?
- Did rock art play a role in mobility and accessibility between different regions and areas of economic importance such as those of agricultural and hunting potential?
- Was rock art a mechanism of landscape control?
Enhance our current knowledge of the relationship between prehistoric rock art, its landscape location and relationship with natural features, as well as other archaeological sites.
- What is the relationship between rock art and place?
- What were the relationships between rock art location, the landscape, and local geology, and how did these variables influence the selection of rock surfaces to be carved.
- What can cross-disciplinary research combining rock art and environmental analysis tell us about the landscapes in which the carvings would have originally been located? How much has the landscape changed?
- Does geology, landscape location and place play a role in the regional differences and similarities of rock art?
- Was the stone type important for the creation of rock art? Was it a limiting factor, or were motifs created on all types of rock?
- Was there a relationship between rock art and watercourses?
Deepen our understanding between rock art and other contemporary monuments and sites.
- How was rock art associated with contemporary patterns of settlement?
- Which types of monuments were contemporary of rock art?
- What was the relationship between rock art and other monuments such as cursus, chambered cairns or other funerary monuments?
Explore the potential relationships between rock art and skyscapes.
- Was there a relationship between rock art, the stars and other astronomical events? Can systematic and scientific methods enhance our understanding of the relationship between rock art and astronomical phenomena, such as lunar and solar events or the stars, and what this connection meant for people?
- Was the rock art created to enhance spiritual connections or enhance relationships with the planets, stars, sun and moon?
Understand the role of rock art for society and social relationships.
- Who created the rock art?
- Was rock art associated with events that would bring together larger groups of people such as specific ceremonies or even occasions such as droving markets in ancient periods?
- Were there other activities happening while people were creating rock art?
- Encourage and promote more archaeological excavations in relation to and around rock art sites to explore the immediate contexts of the panels more systematically, and if there were other associated remains and what kind of activities could have been developed around them.
Enhance our current understanding of relationships between regions, which may explain similarities observed in the rock art.
- What was the relationship between rock art, pathways and routeways?
- Were there connections between Scotland and other international regions with similar rock art?
- What was the impact of mobility on the character of rock art, and did the tradition change or was impacted by trade, migration, movement of people and ideas over time.
- How have patterns of research, preservation and survival impact our understanding of rock art’s distribution?
- Did increase in mobility play a role in the widespread of prehistoric rock art?
- Did rock art change with the arrival of other peoples and populations, and did these events affect the type of motifs being created?
- How does the inter-regional aspect of Atlantic Rock Art relate to trading, migration, movement of people and ideas?
Develop strategies for better protect and safeguard prehistoric rock art.
- Is there a relationship between climate change and erosion of rock art?
- Which methods and techniques can we use to better understand erosion and weathering processes and how these impact rock art preservation?
Engaging and Experiencing
Encourage diverse and inclusive awareness by promoting information about rock art in popular media, including local and national press, TV, and newsletters, social media, websites, and merchandise, and through talks and videos accessible to the wider community.
- What is currently being done to better engage people with rock art?
- How can information best be provided to the public both on rock art generally and specific rock art examples?
- How can new audiences best be reached?
- Would better education about rock art enhance appreciation and understanding?
- How can public awareness of rock art be increased to equal other carved stones such as Pictish Stones, which are widely publicised, written about, and have their own trails?
Widen knowledge and appreciation of rock art by promoting existing resources such as the ScRAP website and database.
- How do we get the public to engage with existing information about rock art?
- Do students know about and use the ScRAP website?
- How can we encourage more students to research rock art using existing resources?
Enhance relevance and contemporary social value of rock art by articulating it within human-scale narratives, social histories, folklore, local places and landscapes, and as part of a global phenomenon.
- How can we overcome the remoteness of prehistory and foster a sense of social value in the ancientness of rock art?
- How do we enhance appreciation of rock art as an integral part of the archaeological and contemporary landscape?
- Is rock art known or unknown locally, and to what extent does it survive in stories, memories and folklore?
Build connections with diverse communities of interest by promoting themes in rock art that are significant to those communities, such as geology, spirituality, well-being, creative expression, or environmental knowledge.
- Which communities could be reached, and how do we reach them?
- Who is engaging with the digital world? Is there too much engagement?
- Can we build bridges with other communities who occupy rock art landscapes, such as climbers, hikers, farmers etc?
Inspire engagement with rock art through dedicated events, installations and exhibitions, where possible using hands-on and digital technology in new and imaginative ways to create immersive and memorable experiences of the visual, sensory, and contextual dimensions of rock art.
- Is it easier to engage the general public with rock art in a controlled museum type environment than direct them to rock art sites in the field?
- What more can museums, libraries, galleries and other civic organisations do to promote engagement with rock art?
- How can we connect rock art with existing local, regional and national festivals and events?
Use creative and experimental approaches to stimulate new ways of engaging with rock art, and share the outcomes of these activities in ways that are accessible and inclusive, such as workshops, exhibitions, and online material.
- Could modern rock art projects provide forms of creative and expressive placemaking which are productive for communities?
Seek ways to incentivise inclusive sustainable physical and virtual access to rock art by making engagement fun, rewarding and informative.
- Can rock art (and archaeology) be used as a therapeutic practice – well-being, mindful, playful, creative?
- Make it easier for people to find and record rock art using an accessible, standardised approach to determining accurate locations (e.g. What3Words).
- Can public access to and engagement with rock art be improved by providing better information about where it is?
Embed rock art learning within schools by providing creative indoor and outdoor learning resources and CPD for teachers, and developing opportunities for young learners to visit rock art in the landscape, in museums, or in virtual environments.
- How do we make rock art more accessible and understandable to young learners?
Provide in-person and online skills training in rock art identification, recording and preservation for communities and professionals.
Collaborate with local communities, landowners, farmers, and stakeholders to develop schemes that enhance public engagement with and access to rock art, with mutually beneficial, shared and sustainable legacies (Landscape Partnership schemes, enhancing tourism etc).
- Should we concentrate new schemes and initiatives in areas of greatest rock art density?
- How can rock art be promoted through tourist boards or local authority websites?
Inform and incentivise public investigation, identification, reporting and documentation of rock art by promoting guidance and recording methodologies, and ensuring that mechanisms for reporting and sharing data are easily accessible, user-friendly and well-supported.
- How will a new generation be trained to record rock art, and will the skills of ScRAP be lost?
- How do people add to the ScRAP database?
- How do community contributors ensure that their new and updated rock art records are incorporated into all the relevant regional and national archives (HERs, ScRAP and Trove)?
- How can rock art reporting and data sharing mechanisms be made more attractive to the general public and communities?
Provide opportunities for community co-design and co-production of rock art research and interpretation, and ensure that research outcomes are widely shared with non-academic communities.
- How is new research being shared more widely than academia?
Empower communities to develop resources aimed at enhancing local access, awareness and resilience of rock art, including talks, walks, publications, interpretation panels, and events.
Securing for the Future
Legislation, Strategy, Policy
Produce an agreed statement on the significance rock art to cultural heritage and contemporary social value, the threats it faces, and how best to mitigate these, and make this available to governmental bodies, practitioners, developers and communities.
Ensure that the historic environment is considered in all forms of land management. Current agri-environmental policies and legislation, including rural stewardship schemes, need to be reviewed at the highest level in relation to their impact on cultural heritage, and revised in consultation with landowners and farming communities to enhance its preservation.
Work with landowners and the farming community to understand and identify their needs and priorities, and develop rock art awareness-raising initiatives and preservation incentives that address these concerns and foster a culture of value.
- What are the barriers to engaging farmers and landowners with rock art on their land, and how can these be overcome?
- Are there generational differences in how famers and landowners perceive rock art and heritage on their land?
- Does raising awareness with farmers and landowners create a higher risk for rock art?
Consult with the local community, landowners, farmers and stakeholders in all decision-making processes regarding rock art management, conservation and protection strategies.
Build awareness, management and longer-term future planning of rock art preservation into national, regional and local management strategies and conservation policies.
- How do organisations balance and address national versus local concerns?
Protection
Provide comprehensive guidance and training to inform Planning Proposals and Impact Assessments about the significance and vulnerability of all rock art, and potential risks of large-scale landscape developments on known and previously undiscovered rock art sites and their below-ground archaeological contexts.
Ensure that mitigation work in advance of planned developments is conducted by professionals with experience of identifying rock art, and includes walk-over and geophysical surveys, watching briefs, and full recording (including 3D modelling) of rock art in the affected area, taking all rock art into account equally.
Use current research to revise the criteria for designating rock art as Scheduled Monuments, and undertake a programme of systematic scheduling of rock art in all areas of Scotland in consultation with local communities, landowners, farmers and stakeholders.
- What are the criteria for scheduling rock art?
- Why are so few rock art sites scheduled?
- Is there any evidence that scheduling is effective in protecting rock art?
In the light of current knowledge, evaluate and revise Historic Environment Scotland’s existing measures for safeguarding rock art, and expand the number of rock art sites managed as Properties in Care to include a more geographically representative sample.
- Why are there so few rock art Properties in Care?
Instigate a level of formal protection for all panels not designated as Scheduled Monuments, and ensure that regional and national heritage managers have appropriate powers to enforce this.
- Why are there limitations on conservation and management – is this government driven?
- What else could be done to protect rock art?
Preservation and Digital Legacy
Initiate a nation-wide programme aimed at raising awareness of rock art and conservation issues within public and professional communities, facilitated through wide-ranging partnerships and funding.
- Does raising awareness put rock art at higher risk from deliberate or unwitting damage?
- How do we determine which panels are priorities for raising awareness of conservation issues?
- How would a national programme be funded and managed?
Building on the work of ScRAP in recording risks to rock art, involve local communities in a complete audit of which sites and their contexts are most at risk and why, including documentation of panels that have been moved, defaced or destroyed.
- Which rock art panels are most at risk and how do we assess this?
- What are the main risks to rock art?
- Do boundaries and fences stop rock art being eroded or damaged?
Extend the community co-production work of ScRAP to produce a comprehensive digital database for all Scotland’s rock art using a standardised recording methodology and 3D modelling, prioritising higher risk panels.
- Who would fund and manage a continuation of ScRAP?
Ensure that all new rock art data are rapidly integrated into national and regional digital archives, future-proofed and publicly accessible, and that these archives are fully synchronized and consistent.
Conservation
Investigate the impact of climate change on different stone types and contexts through collaborative scientific research to identify most at-risk panels, and use this to inform conservation, management and preservation approaches.
- Do some panels need maintenance and care more than others?
- Are any panels at risk from climate change factors and in what ways?
Explore opportunities for collaborative scientific research on appropriate conservation measures for rock art and its contexts.
- What opportunities are there of greater application of scientific approaches?
- What opportunities are there for partnering with universities, researchers and students?
Use research and precedent to produce best practice guidance on rock art conservation strategies, based around a spectrum of approaches relevant to specific threats and scenarios (ranging from ‘soft’ options, such as interpretation boards and information, to practical measures such as diverting footpaths or fencing to keep off livestock, and ‘hard’ options for high-risk panels, including covering or removing, and replacing with digital twins or augmented reality).
- Should carved stones be moved if they are at risk from farming or other threats? Would museums want them?
- Do we want to preserve just the rock art, or the carvings in their original context?
- Should the best examples be covered to protect them from natural erosion and the effects of climate change?
- How is rock art on public display in museums and visitor centres portrayed, and is this beneficial to its conservation?
Assess threats and risks to rock art on a case-by-case basis and, where appropriate, apply bespoke protection and conservation strategies informed by best practice guidance, and developed in consultation with the local community, landowners and stakeholders. All actions, and locations of covered or removed panels, should be fully recorded, and strategies should be regularly reviewed to ensure they remain appropriate and relevant.
- What are the conservation needs (and plans) for each rock art panel?
- What are the root causes of modern graffiti and damage, and how can these be mitigated?
- How will conservation measures be funded?
Management and monitoring
Balance conservation needs and access to rock art through awareness-raising, best practice guidance, and community engagement, with a clear mechanism in place for reporting and responding to threats and damage.
- How do we balance conservation with access?
Work with communities and stakeholders to identify, develop and promote specific rock art sites across Scotland as visitor attractions, with appropriate access, protection measures, interpretation, and responsible behaviour guidelines in place, and initiate events to encourage engagement.
- Should access be monetised?
- How will enhanced access and preservation be funded?
- Is enhanced access and tourism good or bad for rock art preservation?
- How do we quantify visitor numbers?
Introduce citizen science approaches for monitoring condition, and provide on-going support for this scheme.
- What criteria and methods should be used for monitoring rock art condition and deterioration? How can 3D modelling best be used for this?
Consult and collaborate with communities to establish a stewardship scheme with local community custodians responsible for keeping rock art sites clean, undamaged, and accessible, and empowered to take the lead on engagement and education activities that instill local pride and sense of social value.
- Could museums play an important role in stewardship and creating awareness?
Work with local communities and stakeholders to manage conservation of and access to specific rock art sites through Archaeology Scotland’s Adopt-a-Monument scheme.