Tag: antiquities

Craven Hall Hill (2), Hawksworth Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 14620 44272

Getting Here

Craven Hall Hill carving

You can walk up from Menston, up Moor Lane north-west towards the moor, then turning left when you hit the moorland road of Hillings Lane.  Nearly 350 yards along, turn right up the track known as Occupation lane onto the moor.  More than half-a-mile up, past the gate at the Bee Stone, where the track splits, keep to the left and head further uphill, roughly parallel with the fence on your left.  Literally ¼-mile (0.4 km) up from the split, you’re looking almost straight down at the reservoir; but to your left, walk towards the fence.  Zigzag about!  You can also approach it from the Grubstones and Great Skirtful area, by following the Occupation Lane track eastwards down the slope until you’re roughly level with the same reservoir.

Archaeology & History

On this somewhat isolated stone on the northern sloping edge of Craven Hall Hill we find a small cluster of shallow cup-marks, first noted in the 1980s and eventually mentioned in a survey by Boughey & Vickerman (2003) where they described it as a,

“Low, medium striated rock lying in slope of hill.  SE end carries possibly up to eleven cups, possibly two sets grouped in arcs running into natural striations of rock, one of which may have been artificially enhanced by pecking.”

Shallow cup-marks

The view from here is quite something: gazing east to the heathen hilltop of Otley Chevin (Beltane rites and rock art — albeit not much), north-east to the far uplands of the White Horse of Kilburn, then across the northern panoramas of Askwith and Denton Moors, and beyond.  Some archaeologists have started to believe that such vistas may have had relevance with such carvings, sometimes.  They’ve caught up at last! 🙂  Anyhow, the carving itself is pretty simplistic and probably only of interest to the real petroglyph nuts amongst you – although it’s mebbe worth checking out if you’re visiting the Great Skirtful giant cairn and its very impressive hengi-form neighbour.

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.
  2. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding – Supplement, YAS 2018.

Acknowledgements:  With thanks to Tom Cleland for help in relocating the site on a recent visit.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Reva Hill (2), Hawksworth, West Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 15002 43155

Getting Here

The stone in question

Numerous ways to get here: probably the easiest (direction wise) is if you’re coming from Dick Hudson’s public house on the southern road surrounding Rombalds Moor. From the pub, head left (east) along Otley Road (passing Weecher reservoir) for 1.9 miles (3.1km) until you reach Reva reservoir where a track leads you to the waters.  A small parking spot is on the left-side of the road. From here, go through the gate and along the footpath across the field for nearly 300 yards to the next gate.  Go through here and immediately follow the walling down to your left for about 135 yards to the edge of the rushes.  It’s there!

Archaeology & History

Single cupmark nr the top

On a recent visit to the Fraggle Rock carving, Tom Cleland foraged about at the edge of what was, in centuries gone by, a good flowing stream below the west slope of Reva Hill.  An old pathway cut across one section of it near where the walling now runs, covered these days in the mass of Juncus reeds, typical of mashy grounds.  And here, just where folk would cross the waters, Tom found a good sized stone with a single deep cup-mark on its crown, calling through a feast of lichens to be seen once more.  There may be a second cup-mark by its side, but the light wasn’t good when we were here, so that’ll be worked out  some other day.  Anyhow, this one’s probably only for the crazy petroglyph hunters out there.  It’s the Fraggle Rock and its companios that you’re gonna be looking for, nearby….

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Gazing Stone, Steeton, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 03420 43572

Getting Here

Gazing Stone of Steeton

In Steeton, walk up the High Street and after a hundred yards or so, turn right to go up to Quarry House (opposite Falcon Cliffe), up past Quarry Cottages to the end where it turns into a track.  Follow the track for 200 yards, where it bends left, then immediately right go into the field, following the wall along for 450 yards where you’ll go through a gate to another rocky steep hill-slope.  Walk up by the side of the walling here, at the edge of the trees and, once at the top, bear right and a few yards along keep your eyes peeled.  You’re virtually on top of it!

Archaeology & History

Not previously recorded, this is an unusual design: unusual in more ways than one.  Firstly, it’s not entirely ‘ancient’; and secondly, the linearity in some of the carved lines around the cup-marks is unusual.  It reminded me a little of the Hanging Stones above Ilkley, with its deeply cut lines, swerving around cup-marks, whose lack of ‘ancient’ guise is somewhat betrayed by the fact that Victorian quarry operations uncovered them—much like happened here…

It was first noticed in 2024 by Collette Walsh during a petroglyphic foray in the area.  She noticed the distinct cup-marks on the rock surface, but then when she noticed a distinct quarrying mark, she dropped the idea that it was prehistoric.  But this distinct quarry or stone-mason mark—executed sometime in the 19th century when the Industrialists were working here—shouldn’t take our attention away from the cup-marks; nor indeed all aspects of the other carved lines that swing round the edges of the deepest of the three cups, which is surrounded by a long curved triangle, some of which was carved into a natural crack, highlighting it more. The single outlying cup looked, from some angles when wet, that it may have had a partial ring around it—but we were unsure and it may have just been a trick of the light, along with our desire to see more than there actually is.  Anyhow, it’s worth seeing.  But we could do with a stonemason to check it out, enabling us a better assessment of which bits of this design are old and which are not-so-old.

Acknowledgements:  To Collette Walsh for uncovering this design; and to Tom Cleland for showing me where it lives!

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Mossyard, Anwoth, Kirkcudbrightshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone (removed):  OS Grid Reference – NX 550 520

Archaeology & History

This impressive-looking carving was brought to the attention of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries by Sir Herbert H. Maxwell (1900), who thereafter moved it to the National Museum where, I presume, it still lives, in a box somewhere, sleeping gently.  Maxwell’s brief resumé of the stone was as follows:

“Cup and Ring-marked Slab…found in a dyke on the farm of Mossyard, Anwoth, Kirkcudbrightshire.  This cup-and ring-sculpturing is peculiar in having five rings round the central cup crossed by a gutter which ends in another cup from which gutters also proceed to right and left, each terminating in a cup.”

In Ron Morris’s (1979) survey he erroneously told how the carving had been found in a wall instead of the dyke from whence it came; but, that triviality aside, he described it as,

Morris’ 1979 photo
Maxwell’s 1900 drawing

“A cup-and-five-rings, the rings slightly flattened where a radial groove from the cup passes through them.  23cm (9½in) diameter, grooves connecting this with 3 other cups.  Carving depths up to ½cm (¼in).  The rings are rather lightly pecked though quite wide and well preserved.  All gapped, except the inner ring.”

If anyone is able to get any good photos of the carving, out from its museum hideaway, it would be good to see how it’s coping therein….

References:

  1. Maxwell, Herbert R., “Donations to the Museum and Library,” in Proceedings Society Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 35, 1901.
  2. Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Galloway and the Isle of Man, Blandford: Poole 1979.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

St Agnes’ Well, St. Agnes, Cornwall

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Holy Well (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – SW 7202 5073

Archaeology & History

Not to be confused with another St. Agnes’ Well near the coast just 1½ miles southwest of here, this ‘holy well’ was found in the middle of the town itself.  It was first described sometime between 1710 and 1720 by a certain Thomas Tonkin who penned lengthy notes about the history of the parish of St Agnes and, therein, mentioned this Well which was, he said, located “by the Cross before the Church.”  But it had already been drained and “cut off”, as he put it, some years prior to him writing his notes.

More than two hundred years later, on 3 December 1931, the West Briton & Cornwall Advertiser reported on an excavation that took place of the nave of St Agnes church.  The vicar, a Rev W.H. Browne, said that,

“On the west side there was evidence of water, which might have been a spring and possibly the holy well. We shall have to preserve it if it turns out to be what we anticipate it is.  How this is to be done, I do not know, but we cannot allow it to be covered in again without doing something.  It is creating tremendous interest, and will cause a great fight among the experts.”

Several years later, the great Cornish hagiographer Gilbert Dobie (1940) also mentioned the excavation, noting the wet area which they believed was the location of the well, also noting, “at the same time…the finding of remains of an earlier chapel.”

References:

  1. Doble, Gilbert H., History of St Piran, 1940.
  2. Tonkin, Thomas, “The Parish of St Agnes,” in Journal royal Institute Cornwall (eds. P.A.S. Pool & H.S Douch), volume 7 (2nd series), 1975.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Pitcorthie, Dunfermline, Fife

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Standing Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NT 11389 86318

Also Known as:

  1. Easter Pitcorthie

Getting Here

Pitcorthie standing stone

If you’re coming south out of Dunfermline, or north towards Dunfermline, make sure you go along the A823 Queensferry Road.  About a mile short of the town centre you need to turn east along the B916 Aberdour Road.  Nearly 1 mile along here, shortly past the Tesco supermarket, turn left along Tweeddale Drive.  About 50 yards down here, turn left again along Walls Place.  About 120 yards along you’ll find a small ginnel/path that runs between two rows of flats on the council estate.  Walk down here for a short distance and the stone will magically appear on your right.

Archaeology & History

This is a bit of an odd one!  Early accounts of the monolith are scarce and, on my first visit here, I was somewhat sceptical of its prehistoric provenance.  To be honest, I still am.  The erosion levels on the stone give the impression that it’s a much more recent erection (calm down… 😉 ), almost as if it was only quarried a century or two ago.  Anyhow, that aside.  It’s a nice bulky standing stone, nearly six feet tall and erected where the rising land levels out in the middle of the modern housing estate.  It was included in the Royal Commission (1933) survey, who said of it:

Pitcorthie, looking SW
Pitcorthie, looking West

“About 200 yards north of the farm of Easter Pitcorthie, in a field adjoining the north side of the roadway from Dunfermline to Burntisland, stands a roughly rectangular block of sandstone, which presents the appearance of having been subjected to fire or heat.  It is set with its main axis due north and south on the crest of slightly rising ground… There are some indications that it has been packed at the base, but what appears to be packing may be no more than a collection of loose stones which have accumulated round it during the years in which the surrounding area has been cultivated. It rises to a height of 5 feet 10 inches above the ground level, but shows no traces of any sculpturings.  At 3 feet from the ground its girth if 11 feet 10 inches.”

It would be good if there were other prehistoric remains close by that could erode my slight scepticism about its age, but I think the nearest other Bronze Age monument is the cairn more than half-a-mile to the south-east.

References:

  1. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments, Scotland, Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the Counties of Fife, Kinross and Clackmannan, HMSO: Edinburgh 1933.
  2. Swarbrick, Olaf, A Gazetteer of Prehistoric Standing Stones in Great Britain, BAR: Oxford 2012.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Clach Mhor, Aberfeldy, Perthshire

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Cup-Marked Stone (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – NN 8575 4901

Also Known as:

  1. Clachmore

Archaeology & History

The Clach Mhor, or the Big Stone, is all but forgotten as an antiquarian relic in Aberfeldy.  It’s history is somewhat piecemeal.  First described in Hugh MacMillan (1884)’s essay on local cup-and-ring stones, he told that:

“A short distance above the village of Aberfeldy, where General Wade’s old road emerges from the houses, a huge stone, called the Clach Mhor, lies on the left-hand side in a slanting position half  erect, as if supported by the garden wall of which it forms a part. …In all likelihood it originally stood erect, and formed one of a group of similar stones, its companions having been broken up in the formation of the road. …On the upper face there are some small cup-markings, not quite so well formed as usual, owing to the hardness of the material… The fact that they occur on only one side of the stone, and are scattered indiscriminately all over its surface, are sufficient to convince any one who is skilled in the subject that they are genuine specimens of prehistoric sculpture.”

Nearly thirty years after this initial description, MacMillan (1901) found that it had previously been a part of The Tullich stone circle, and following its destruction the Clach Mhor was moved and used as “part of a garden wall on the old military road passing along its base.”

More than fifty years later, the Aberfeldy historian N.D. Mackay (1954) told that up to 1910 the Clach Mhor was a conspicuous object, standing “as it were overlooking and to some extent overhanging the roadway down near the Square.” However, it

“was blasted and broken up in 1910 in the course of road widening operations, but a considable part of it was built into, and still forms the lower corner of, the garden boundary wall, nearest The Square, of the house which bears its name, ‘Clachmhor’.  Its present position is slightly east of the site it occupied when I first knew it and, unless Wade’s men did actually move it, the site it occupied for centuries.”

Mackay also mentioned what he called the “indentations” on the stone which MacMillam deemed as cup-marks, but he pointed out that one Rev. John MacLean “believed they were made by the levers, jacks, etc, of (General) Wade’s men” when they cut the road into Aberfeldy in the 18th century, whilst

“A third solution was given by the son of a one-time local strong man called Big Robert, “What a strong man my father was,” he said, “he lifted that stone. Don’t you see the marks of his fingers on it?””

It’s not known what became of the Clach Mhor and whether it remains hiding in some walling, or whether it has met its demise….

References:

  1. Mackay, N.D., Aberfeldy Past and Present, Town Council: Aberfeldy 1954.
  2. MacMillan, Hugh, “Notice of Cup-Marked Stones near Aberfeldy”, in Proceedings Society of Antiquaries Scotland, volume 18, 1884.
  3. MacMillan, Hugh, The Highland Tay, Virtue: London 1901.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Tormain Hill (8), Ratho, Midlothian

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NT 12907 69667

Also Known as:

  1. Tormain ‘H’ (Allen 1882)

Archaeology & History

Dodgy cups of Tormain-8

Found barely 12 inches east of the Tormain (7) carving, this ‘cup-marked stone’ is another somewhat dubious design in the Tormain cluster, but which I’m adding here for the sake of completeness.  It’s designated as authentic by the Scottish Rock Art Project—but I’m not convinced.  Consisting of just two cup-marks, Romilly Allen (1882) was the first to notice them and described them respectively as, “one 1 inch in diameter and the other 1½ inch across.”  The smaller of the two, I’m pretty sure, is geophysical in nature.

 

References:

  1. Allen, J. Romilly, “Notes on some Undescribed Stones with Cup Markings in Scotland,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries Scotland, volume 16, 1882.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Glen Ogle, Lochearnhead, Perthshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 58727 24527

Getting Here

Glen Ogle (1) carving

In Lochearnhead village start walking up the Glen Ogle road and, just past the last house on the right, a dirt-track bends down to an old building.  Just before the building, keep your eyes peeled for the small footpath that runs down to the river.  Walk along here and cross the river-bridge, then bear diagonally to your left and walk up the singular footpath.  It snakes through the trees for a few hundred yards then opens out into a field.  About 75 yards along the path in the field the land levels out.  From here, walk through the grasses to your right about 20 yards.  Zigzag about – you’ll find it.

Archaeology & History

Main cluster + v.faint ring

The setting of this carving is, like many of Perthshire’s petroglyphs, quite beautiful.  It was made when the ‘artist’ carving the stone was crouched or sat on the ground, gazing at the southern landscape and heights around Ben Vorlich, whose mythic nature may have been part of the design.

Comprising of a cluster of typical cup-marks, there are two, perhaps three very faint rings in the design, which seems to have been described for the first time in George Currie’s (2012) typically short minimalist way.  He told that in the field,

“50m E of the Ogle Burn is a boulder 2.1 x 0.9 x 0.5m, which bears 21 cup marks, 2 of which have single rings.”

Cup and faint ring
Faint cups on the crown

Much of the original design is difficult to see in full unless the lighting is good.  We spent several hours here and counted 25 cup-marks and found rings around three of them—but these proved difficult to photograph and some more visits are needed to capture them.  “Officially” at least, there are no other carvings close to this one.  But that’s obviously not going to be the case.  Well worth checking out when you’re in the area.

References:

  1. Currie, George, “Stirling: Balquhidder, Glen Ogle – Cup-and ring-marked rock”, in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, volume 13 (New Series), 2012.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Wishing Well, Ecclesall, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

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Sacred Well (lost):  OS Grid Reference – SK 30 84

Archaeology & History

The location of this site has proved troublesome.  Even when Rob Wilson (1991) did his local survey of holy wells he was unable to locate it—but it looks as if it shouldn’t be too troublesome to find, as the area in which it flowed is still very much a mix of open countryside and maintained landscapes.  Described briefly as the “Wishing Well near Whiteley Wood” in Sidney Addy’s (1893) fine work, he makes a rather hopeful attempt to derive the word ‘wishing’ from German mythology, where “one of the names of the god Wuotan or Odin was Wunsch or Wish.” But – well – you just never know…..

In the landscape at Whiteley Wood there is a Priest’s Hill, so if this Well was found there, it may indeed have had an authentic ‘holy’ designation.  But there were a couple of ponds in the area too, which may be fed by this spring.  So, first, we need to find the well!

References:

  1. Addy, Sidney Oldall, The Hall of Waltheof, William Townsend: Sheffield 1893.
  2. Wilson, Rob, Holy Wells and Spas of South Yorkshire, Northern Arts: Sheffield 1991.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian