Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – NU 0226 3155
Getting Here
The easiest route to get up here is probably from Wooler (locals, please forgive me!). Head up the B6348 road then, after about two miles, turn left over the old bridge, then keep going uphill where the road veers right and keep going for nearly a mile where (keep your eyes peeled!) you’ll see a dirt-track on your left that heads to West Horton Farm. Walk up the dirt-track, keeping north past the farm until you enter the field. You’ll walk past the newly-found West Horton (1a) cup-and-ring and, walking along the side of the fence, you’ll eventually reach the little copse of trees. Once here, in the field over the fence you’ll see a scatter of low-lying rocks in the field. Head for them and look around!
Archaeology & History
Found a hundred yards or so to the east of the much more renowned and impressive West Horton ridge carvings (the raised spine in the land in the background up the slope in the photo), this basic cup-marked stone has (curiously) not previously been reported and was re-discovered by rock art explorer Tom Cleland in the summer of 1996. It’s nowt special to look at, and consists of merely four notable cup-marks—possibly five—that are quite deep and eroded, with one of them seeming to have a channel linking it it another, smaller cup. There is a scattering of other rock surfaces by this stone, none of which have any features on them apart from this stone.
© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian
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