Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 0467 6373
Archaeology & History
After visiting the Hartlington Moor Lane carving, walk further up the track for bang-on 400 yards and you’ll reach a gate on your right. In the field here, about 150 yards in, is an ornate cup-marked stone, which has had the dung of a hundred animals and other natural effects dumped upon it in recent years and, as a result, remains hidden at the mo. A sketch of it was made some time back, showing it’s general design, but it would be good to get some good photos of it (let us know if you manage to locate it).
The carving covers most of the surface of this low rounded stone and a number of the cups are quite deep, which suggests that it had been hidden from view for a long time. There are up to 54 cups, several of which are linked together by carved grooves, giving it what some folk call an ‘hour-glass’ feature. Near the middle of the stone it looked as if there was a faint cup-and-ring with a carved line running out of it.
© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian
