been out exploring my local haunt today,decided to look a bit closer at things instead of walking on by as i normally do.my place oc work is right next to this ayrshire landmark so i see it every day,,does anybody know what this is,,,i think it is just a masons mark,but just wondering what the mark means,some pics

this area has significant history of roman occupation and obvious medieval connections with bruce and wallace but i was wondering about the most recent part of loudounhills history and that is the covenanters it was used a a conventicle and the drumclog monument is only a short distance away,,,but i still think its a masons mark,,nothing exciting ever happens to me this looks very much like the roman road ,but probably isnti have witnessed several archaeological excavations in the area but they were across the a71 in the quarry where i work,, one was dark ages and the other a rare medieval ditched homestead

Neil, it looks like a mason's mark to me... in fact its very similar to the one found at Jevington church, South Downs (tho the person that posted the photo on Picasa thinks it might be a pilgrim's mark, but without much info to be found on those I'm a bit sceptical!)

i think your right about the masons mark,done a bit of searching and found nothing the same,the only ones i have seen before were in rosslyn chapel and kilwinning abbey,and all of them to me were not as deeply chiselled as the loudounhill one,

I've seen a few in various other places, some of which have been similar to the one you have in the photograph you posted (and also similar to the one in the link I have now fixed in my post above!)

the very same bruce,must be be a far travelled mason,or indeed a pilgrim