Lichen Stone, Burley, West Yorkshire

Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 150 440

Archaeology & History

Lichen Stone cup-and-ring
Lichen Stone cup-and-ring

This is another of the many unrecorded cup-and-ring carvings in the region—and one in a small cluster hereby.  It was rediscovered several years ago on a Northern Antiquarian outing and, thankfully, remains in good condition.  Encrusted by layers of gorgeous lichens, deep into the rock, it has hence proven difficult to explore the entirity of the exact design without tearing off the old covering—which I’ve no intention of doing.

Lichen Stone, from above
Lichen Stone, from above

There are at least a dozen cup-markings etched onto the upper surface of this curved stone, with the majority of them clustering around its eastern side.  It seems there is only one single cup-mark on the western side of the rock, with the rest of them starting in the middle and then moving to its east.  But the curious features are the interlinking carved lines which you can see have been highlighted on the top and sides of the stone.  Some of them typically link-up with other cups, whilst a number of them have been carved along and down the vertical faces of the rock, primarily on the east and northeast edges.  At least seven of them have been done and they all reach down to ground-level.

Cups & carved lines
Cups & carved lines
Carved lines highlighted
Carved lines highlighted

It seemed obvious that a greater design was apparent on the rock, but the stone had been covered in an age of lichen (hence the name) which I didn’t want to disturb; and although no distinct cup-and-ring can be seen here, it seemed as if one such motif was hiding beneath the lichen cover.  But let’s leave the rock and lichen to their own quiet life and move on our way…

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


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