Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 05619 46181
Getting Here
As you’re going into Silsden up the A6034 road, over the canal bridge, turn right (east) and go up Howden Road for half-a-mile, then go left up Hawber Lane and after 250 yards veer right along Brunthwaite Lane. After nearly another half-mile, through gorgeous High Brunthwaite hamlet and just as the road bends round past the last of the gardens and houses, go through the gate into the field on your right. You’re needing to look at the walling here, which runs alongside the road, but on the field-side, barely 10 yards up. A cluster of rocks has been piled-up against the wall. The largest rounded broken one is the one you’re looking for.
Archaeology & History
Discovered recently by the petroglyph explorer Thomas Cleland, this is one of two cup-marked stones in close attendance to each other. It’s nowt special to look at—unless you’re an ardent rock art buff!—as it consists of just two large well-formed cup-marks on its near-vertical face: the most distinct one being some two-inch across and a half-inch deep. The stone was obviously rolled here from very close by and just piled up against the wall and has been broken from a larger piece of rock, but we could see no other cup-marks on the others laid around it (although we couldn’t lift and turn the others over to see if there was anything on their undersides). The earthfast High Brunthwaite (2) cup-marked stone is just a yard away at the base of the wall.
Acknowledgements: Massive appreciation to Thomas Cleland for finding this carving and showing us it’s whereabouts.
© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian
