Category: Cup-and-Ring Stones

Ostensibly non-linear carved designs, generally assumed to be Bronze Age in date, but many originate in the neolithic period (some may indeed date back to 5000 BCE). Their central features are small rounded cup-markings, circles, semi-circles, curved lines (short, mid-length, and long), straight-ish lines, double- and multiple-rings, all in usually abstract design-forms. Their almost complete non-linear nature relate to non-egoic structuralisms, making them difficult to ‘intellectually’ grasp. Added to this is that no two carvings are the same. Although no direct ‘meaning’ can be ascribed to the carvings, many of them have a relationship with ancient notions of death and/or burial. In animistic terms, they relate to the spirit of rocks and other features of the natural landscape. They have very little relationship with alignment features (though exceptions in some megalithic rings have been found). Some modern writers allege positive relationships with water, but this ingredient (if tenable) cannot yet be said with any certainty: the idea should be forged onto animistic relationships with the land itself.

Middleton Moor Carving 437, North Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 10780 51486

Getting Here

Head for the gorgeous little hamlet of Langbar, a few miles northwest of Ilkley. Less than ½-mile before the village, keep your eyes out for the footpath bearing east onto the moors at Moor End Farm (right-hand side of road if you’ve travelled from Ilkley).  Walk along the Long Ridge footpath to where the fields on your left finish and the moorland proper opens up. Hereabouts, check the stones in the heather to your right!  If you amble about looking, you’ll find it!

Archaeology & History

Crap drawing of CR-437

This is another one of those carvings for the purists amongst you.  Less than ten yards off the footpath on Long Ridge is this medium-sized rock with several cup-marks, and lines, on both its top and vertical faces. Boughey & Vickerman (2003) think there to be at least five cups on the top, with perhaps nine on the vertical east face, though some of these are debatable. (the drawing I’ve done is from their book)

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Weston Churchyard, Askwith, North Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 1774 4663

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.568

Getting Here

Dead easy this. From Otley, take the north road over the River Wharfe and turn left following the signs to Askwith, where you’ll hit Weston village first. Once here, take the small left turn down to Weston Hall and the accompanying church. Go into the churchyard and check the graves!

Archaeology & History

This is a real curiosity.  It’s found in the graveyard of All Saints church, Weston, where one of the graves has several small stones on it, with this small stone with the following cup-and-ring designs upon it.  A plaque has been attached to it as a memorial to one ‘Susan Mary Dawson’.  Strange…

Sid Jackson’s 1958 sketch
Cup-marked stone deliberately placed on a christian grave

It was first written about by Sidney Jackson (1957), but where it first came from and why it has been placed here in a christian setting is something of a mystery.  It’s also odd inasmuch as although we know that there was some form of  ritual or geomantic use of cup-and-rings in relation to neolithic and Bronze Age burials — that such a tradition has been performed by this particular family on this grave.  It is obviously highly unlikely that this family had any knowledge whatsoever of burial traditions in relation to cup-and-ring art (please, shoot me down in flames if you know otherwise), so this re-use of this prehistoric stone is likely to be little other than fortuitous. But then, the occult history of some of the influential families in and around this region in relation to witchcraft, ancient kingship and esoteric practices, might indicate otherwise…

Does anyone know anything about the Dawson family history which might throw light on this modern use of a prehistoric tomb marker?  It has all the hallmarks of once coming from a prehistoric cairn, but we know little of its history prior to 1957.

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
  2. Jackson, Sidney, ‘Cup-and-Ring Boulder, Weston Churchyard,’ in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 2:16, 1957.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Baildon Moor (151), West Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 13736 40227

Also Known as:

  1. Baildon carving no.23 (Hedges)

Getting Here

As with many of the other Baildon Moor carvings, get up to Dobrudden caravan park and walk into the grasses immedietaly northeast onto the Dobrudden necropolis plain for 100 yards or so. It’s not far from the track and one of the many bell-pits is very close by.  Look around!

Archaeology & History

A lovely little carving (sad aren’t I…?), first recorded and illustrated in Glossop’s (1888) famous essay on the ancient sites of Baildon Moor.  He described there being 18 cups etched onto this rock — a fact echoed a few decades later in Mr Baildon’s (1913) magnum opus.  The modern surveys thankfully still count 18 cups here.

Mr Baildon’s 1913 image
Glossop’s 1888 drawing

This is another one of the Baildon Moor carved stones included in Mr Holmes’ (1997) astronomical survey, where he thought the cup-markings here represented stellar maps and other prehistoric astronomical events. A damn good investigative notion, but it sadly aint true.  However, those self-same ‘central design’ curves found at a large proportion of other carvings on and around Baildon Moor are plain here for all to see…

References:

  1. Baildon, W. Paley, Baildon and the Baildons (parts 1-15), St. Catherines Press: Adelphi 1913-26.
  2. Boughey, K.J.S. & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Leeds 2003.
  3. Colls, J.N.M., ‘Letter upon some Early Remains Discovered in Yorkshire,’ in Archaeologia, 31, 1846.
  4. Cowling, Eric T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
  5. Cudworth, William, ‘Baildon Moor & its Antiquities,’ in Bradford Antiquary 3, 1900.
  6. Glossop, William, ‘Ancient British Remains on Baildon Moor,’ in Bradford Antiquary No.1, 1888.
  7. Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks of Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
  8. Holmes, Gordon, 2000 BC – A Neolithic Solstice Odyssey, SASRG 1997.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Baildon Moor (158), West Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 13781 40259

Also Known as:

  1. Baildon Stone 29 (Hedges)

Getting Here

Takes a bitta finding this one, mainly cos it’s only a small stone – but worth the walkabout. It’s on the Low Plain, north of Dobrudden, about 10 yards down the path from the caravan park.

Archaeology & History

W.P. Baildon’s 1913 drawing

As with other stones on this roughland plain, it was first recorded and drawn by the local historian W. Paley Baildon (1913), who counted at least 15 cups here, with one complete cup-and-ring.  Some of the cups have very distinct half-rings upon them; whilst others are connected by faint lines (as his drawing clearly shows).  The later surveys of Hedges (1986), and Boughey & Vickerman (2003) counted 17 cups on this stone.  This was another of the carvings which local astronomer Gordon Holmes (1997) thought may have been based on the constellation of Cassiopeia (like the nearby Cassiopeia Stone, found on the same moorland plain).

References:

  1. Baildon, W. Paley, Baildon and the Baildons (parts 1-15), St. Catherines: Adelphi 1913-26.
  2. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
  3. Glossop, William, ‘Ancient British Remains on Baildon Moor,’ in Bradford Antiquary, 1888.
  4. Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
  5. Holmes, Gordon T., 2000 BC – A Neolithic Solstice Odyssey, SASRG Press 1997.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Baildon Moor (160), West Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 13787 40274

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.33 (Hedges)

Getting Here

W.P. Baildon’s sketch

Best way to find this is to get up to the Dobrudden caravan site on the edge of Baildon Hill, near the cinder-dump, then follow the same directions as for the Baildon Moor carving no.171.  It’s on the same plain amidst the grasses – but you’re gonna have to zigzag about for a while before you find it!

Archaeology & History

A simple plain cup-marked stone which Boughey & Vickerman (2003) reckoned to have 14 of the little babies etched on its surface.  Ninety years earlier, the reliable Mr W.P. Baildon (1913) — who seems to have been the first person to describe this carving — showed there to be 15 cups when he came here.

This was one of the many carved rocks that astronomer Gordon Holmes (1997) looked at in his attempt to give a celestial explanation for the designs.  I’m not too sure misself…

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
  2. Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
  3. Holmes, Gordon T., 2000 BC – A Neolithic Solstice Odyssey, SASRG Press 1997.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Cassiopeia Stone, Baildon Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 13771 40235

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.28 (Hedges)
  2. Carving no.156 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

If you wanna find this carving, you’ll find it near several others on the Low Plain, 40 yards east of the footpath north of Dobrudden Farm.  Look around in the tribbly grass!

Archaeology & History

This was first described and illustrated in a short article by William Glossop in the Bradford Antiquary in 1888, and reproduced by W. Paley Baildon (1913) – who drew his own impression of the carving. Tis one of my favourites from this moor. Dunno why – I just like it.

W.P. Baildon’s accurate 1913 drawing
Cowling’s 1946 drawing

Local astronomer and writer Gordon Holmes (1997) posited the theory that a part of this carving represented the constellation of Cassiopeia — hence its title!  He told of finding the same pattern of cups at four other carvings on the moors and assigned astronomical meanings to them.  He may be right, though I doubt it to be honest.  Having looked and looked at the many carvings here, and many other places, the star-reflection hypothesis doesn’t tend to work (as the heavenly bodies have moved somewhat since the days when the cups were first carved).  Along with this, when I was young I used to think cup-and-rings did have an astronomical basis — only to find, after constant analysis, that the theory didn’t work.

There are perhaps 20 cup-markings here, with various linking-lines and curves between and around the cups.  Perhaps the most accurate of the early drawings was Mr Paley Baildon’s 1913 image, where he highlighted the faint surrounding ring enclosing the 4 or 5 cups near the bottom of the stone.

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
  2. Cowling, Eric T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
  3. Glossop, William, “Ancient British Remains on Baildon Moor,” in Bradford Antiquary, 1888.
  4. Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
  5. Holmes, Gordon T., 2000 BC – A Neolithic Odyssey, SASRG Press 1997.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Enclosure Stone, Bingley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 10983 43368

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.99 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

Enclosure Carving, Stanbury Hill

From East Morton village, take the moorland road, east, and up the steep hill.  Where the road levels out there’s a left turn where a trackway leads onto the moor.  Go up here & keep walking till you hit a moorland ‘footpath’ signpost.  Stop here and walk due west (your left) onto the gently sloping rise and into the mass of the Stanbury Hill enclosure system.  Keep walking for 200 yards or so, where the land begins to slope down to the end of the spur; and just 50 yards before it drops down to the stream below you’ll find a cluster of carved rocks like the Lunar Stone, the Teaspoon Rock, Spotted Stone, etc, all scattered about.  Near these, you’ll find this one!

Archaeology & History

Not to be confused with the carving of the same name on the northern side of these moors (near the Green Crag Slack enclosure), this carved rock gets its name specifically from looking like a lay-out plan of some settlement or enclosure.  It’s unlikely that this title or description has anything to do with the carving, but its the impression it gave me when I first saw it!  But then once you look at the carving from another angle it takes on a different impression.

Enclosure Carving from above

First thought to have been found by Stuart Feather in 1978, it is one of many carvings that occur in what seems to be an extensive prehistoric enclosure or settlement.  There’s a complete cup-and-ring near the western end of the rock, with another distinct cup-marking by its side, and what looks to be a natural cup at the top-end of the stone.  But it was the other section of the carving on the central and eastern side which intrigued me: a curious ‘enclosure’ of lines, with a cup-marking in each section.  Cutting between the cup-and-ring and the enclosure lines is a natural long crack or fissure running roughly north-south through the rock.  It seemed to me (though I could be wrong) that a line had been pecked running along this natural crack — although in Boughey & Vickerman’s (2003) drawing they don’t highlight this.  It also seemed that the carved lines from ‘enclosure’ linked up to the pecked line that was carved along the natural fissure in the rock (as illustrated in my crap drawing!).

Shit drawing of CR99

As with the Lunar Stone nearby: it appears that either this stone was carved at different periods; or else for a long period of time much of the stone was exposed to the elements, whilst a section of it remained covered.  For the distinct cup-and-ring on the western-end is more worn, with more eroded evidence of pecking, than the extended lines on the eastern end of the rock.  I need to go back here and get some better images — and certainly do a much better drawing!

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
  2. Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Cliffe Castle Carving, Keighley, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 0577 4210

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.144 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

Dead easy!  Avoiding Keighley (as common sense dictates), but going to its outskirts, get to the huge Cliffe Castle (tis free) on the northern outskirts of the town. Go inside and look around!

Archaeology & History

Carving in Cliffe Castle Museum
Close-up of cups & rings

Initially located in the ground a few yards south of Dobrudden caravan park amidst a large gathering of other carved rocks, this grand-looking cup-and-ring stone is no longer in situ.  As with a several other carvings, this has been on a bittova wander in the last century!  It was first uprooted from the Earth and archaeologically transferred to Bradford’s Cartwright Hall Museum sometime after World War 2, where it lived peacefully for a number of years, before being moved to Cliff Castle Museum, where it still lives, quietly (along with another prehistoric carved rock, the Comet Stone, that was nabbed from the uplands near the Roms Law circle).

Baildon’s 1913 drawing

As we can see from the photos (taken in poor lighting in the museum – sorry…) there are five cup-and-rings with one cup-and-2-rings standing out (plus about another 10-12 cups scattered here and there); though when W. Paley Baildon drew a picture of the stone around 1913, he could clearly see another cup-and-ring etched onto the stone, but this has faded somewhat in the last century. Messrs Boughey & Vickerman (2003) were unable to see it.

References:

  1. Baildon, W. Paley, Baildon and the Baildons – parts 1-15, Adelphi: London 1913-1926.
  2. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Leeds 2003.
  3. Hedges, John, The Carved Rocks on Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
  4. Jackson, Sidney, ‘Cup and Ring Boulders of Baildon Moor,’ in Bradford’s Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 1, 1955.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Lattice Stone, Middleton Moor, North Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 11571 51635

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.481 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

Lattice Stone carving

This is a lovely-looking stone in the pictures and diagrams, and is quite easy to find close to the meeting of the footpaths along Foldshaw Ridge and the Parks Lane track, near the gate. It lays at an angle in the short grass just by the path…but to me, all is not what it seems…

Archaeology & History

This was a carving I saw pictures of in the 1970s, and always thought it would be something to behold – but my first impression here wasn’t just disappointment, but the most distinct thought that the carving’s modern! It’s a real oddity. For a start, the cups in this carving are very small – much smaller than the countless authentic carvings on the moors here and at Ilkley to the south. And after seeing thousands of these things, this one didn’t seem at all right.

The lack of erosion on the cups may be due to it once accompanying a prehistoric tomb some time in the past, though no such remains have been noted here.  However, at carved stones Middleton Moor 001 and Middleton Moor 2 — less than 100 yards to the east — cairns are in evidence next to the petroglyphs, indicating that this relationship occurs at some cup-and-ring stones in this small geographical region and, perhaps, explaining the ideosyncratic nature of this design.

But such speculation aside – the brief literary history of this stone is: first described by Stuart Feather in 1965 and illustrated by Sidney Jackson the same year.  The rock art students Boughey & Vickerman’s (2003) described around sixty ‘cups’ etched onto the stone here, but they made no comment about either the odd nature of the cups or the possibility of it being modern. Perhaps it’s just me…

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, West Yorkshire Archaeology Service 2003.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian 


Nine Stones Cup-Mark, Harthill, Derbyshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SK 2254 6284

Getting Here

Taking the roughly north-south road betwixt the village of Elton and the town of Youlgrave, rising up to see the great rock outcrop of Robin Hood’s Stride, park-up by the roadside and walk down the path across the fields to the Nine Stone Close stone circle. Once at the circle, the walling closest to the stones runs along a bit (north), then downhill. Follow it. About 25 yards before hitting more walling that crosses your path, there’s a break in the wall to a field immediately left. Just below this gate opening, in the same wall, a few yards down, look for the stone!

Archaeology & History

 

This small carved stone, typical of the size you get in drystone walls all over the country, was discovered for the first time on November 29, 2009, by Geoff Watson, during an ambling foray exploring the megalithic sites in and around the Birchover district.  Not quite sure how his nose picked this little fella out, but once seen (and eyes adjusted!) it was obviously a portable cup-marked stone.  Though what, we first wondered, was it doing in the walling here?

Similar in size and form to the Bent Head cup-marked stone found in drystone walling near Todmorden, West Yorkshire, the proximity of the Nine Stone Close megalithic ring further up the slope from this example illustrated that prehistoric man found this location of some importance; but as the cup-markings — two definites, perhaps a third — had been etched onto a small portable rock, typical of those found in prehistoric tombs, we wondered whether or not a prehistoric grave had once stood close by. Thankfully, a persual of Barry Marsden’s (1977) catalogue later proved fruitful.  For in the adjacent field below where this carved stone sits in its wall, at SK 2255 6286, there’s a scattered mass of loose rocks and smaller stones (akin to the one here with its cup-markings), which Marsden listed as a prehistoric tomb.  It seems probable that this cup-marked ‘portable’ originally came from this much denuded burial spot.

Likelihood is — there’ll be more of ’em hiding in walling and elsewhere hereby…

NB – Please note – the images we took of the stone aint too good as the sky was grey, cloudy and overcast all day. We await a better visit on a finer day, when conditions allow for better images. As we all know, gerrin’ decent photos of cup-markings and their ilk can be a pain in the arse even on the best of days!

References:

  1. Heathcote, J. Percy, Birchover – Its Prehistoric and Druidical Remains, Wilfrid Edwards: Chesterfield 1947. (see MegaDread’s comment, below)
  2. Marsden, Barry, The Burial Mounds of Derbyshire, privately printed: Bingley 1977.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian