Rob Roy MacGregor’s gravestone;scans suggest first carvings were made 1,000years before he died

"Far and near, through vale and hill,Are faces that attest the same,And kindle like a fire new stirr'd,At sound of Rob Roy's name", wrote William Wordsworth in the poem Rob Roy's Grave (1905), later to be used in an introduction of Sir Walter Scott's novel, Rob Roy set in year 1715.Some larger-than-life heroes have been indelibly etched into stories of valour through the ages.

Among the stories of the Scottish Highlands, one tale that has reverberated through time is that of Rob Roy MacGregor.

His gravestone, which has been admired and visited by people for nearly 300 years, is now believed to contain carvings that may predate his death by as much as a thousand years.The discovery was made through 3D imaging of the elaborate stone slab at Balquhidder Parish Church in Scotland, where a grave believed to belong to MacGregor is marked by an elaborately carved stone slab.