Tag: architecture

Little Skirtful Carvings, Burley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stones: OS Grid Reference – SE 13830 45195

East side of Little Skirtful

Also Known as:

  1. Carving nos. 391a, 391b, 391c, 391d
  2. Little Skirtful of Stones’ Carvings

Getting Here

Follow the directions to reach the Little Skirtful of Stones giant prehistoric cairn. Once here, look for the singular rocks out of the many thousands which make up the giant cairn, mainly from the middle to the northern-half of the cairn, and you’ll find them amidst the mass!

Archaeology & History

Cup-marking near the centre of the cairn

Despite the task sounding difficult, it’s not too hard locating the cup-marked rocks within this giant cairn. As I recall there should be five of them, though the Boughey & Vickerman (2003) survey only list four and I only have photos of four of them as well…so I reckon age is probably getting to me at last!  There could very well be more of them amidst this massive tomb.  But we certainly can’t rely on the Boughey & Vickerman (2003) survey for the carvings at this site as they give the wrong grid references for each of the cup-markings listed, with them all being a kilometre east from the site of the tomb itself! Awesome! God knows what their cartographer was on when he did the profiles for these carvings! (there are plenty of spliff-butts scattered over this moor…..)  Not only that, but the position they cite of the relative cup-markings within the cairn are also wrong.

Another portable stone
Cup-mark at outer edge

But for those of you who like to know the archaeological data, here’s what was said: Carving 391a is a “small rock towards SW edge of cairn, with single worn cup”; but this stone is actually closer to the northern section of the cairn.  Carving 391b was told to be a “small dome-shaped rock at extreme S edge of cairn with single, small clear cup at top of dome.”  This again is more on the northern section of the cairn, away from the centre.  Carving 391c was described as a “small oval, rounded rock at N edge of cairn, with single, broad, shallow worn cup.”  Whilst carving 391d which was told to be a “small rock at SSE edge of cairn, with single small worn cup.”  However, we have to take into account that any errors about their position may simply be down to the fact that the small rocks have been moved.

Smoothed cup
Showing different rock-type

As you’ll see in the photos here, one of them is actually near the very centre of the cairn, with the cup-marking etched into the edge of the small rock itself.  I’m not quite sure if this is the additional fifth carving in the cairn, or whether it’s one of those wrongly ascribed as being in another position.  It’s hard to tell, as the local Ilkley Archaeology team don’t publish their findings and information on-line as they should do and unless you’re in their little club they’re hard to get info out of.  So this will have to do for the time being I’m afraid.  Also note how one of the cup-marked stones is of a rock-type different to the local millstone grit.

Folklore

The creation myth of the Little Skirtful itself tells that the giant Rombald (who gives his name to the moor) was in trouble with his wife and when he stepped over to Almscliffe Crags from here, his giant wife – who is never named – dropped a small bundle of stones she was carrying in her apron. Harry Speight (1900) tells us of a variation of the tale,

“which tradition says was let fall by the aforementioned giant Rumbalds, while hastening to build a bridge over the Wharfe.”

Variations on this story have said it was the devil who made the site, but this is a denigrated christian variant on the earlier, and probably healthier, creation tale. Similar tales are told of the Great Skirtful of Stones, 500 yards south.

The cluster of portable small stones with single cup-marks on them relates to traditions found in other cultures in the world where, usually, women would carry such items in their aprons and deposit them at or on the tomb, in honour of the ancestor or spirit known to be resident at the sacred site.  The folklore found at the Little Skirtful (and Great Skirtful too) of Rombald’s wife dropping the rocks here and forming the giant tomb, probably derive from variants of this same honorary practice.

References:

  1. Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Chieveley 2001.
  2. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAA 2003.
  3. Cowling, Eric T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


St. Canna’s Stone, Llangan, Carmarthenshire

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Legendary Rock:  OS Grid Reference – SN 1770 1874

Also Known as:

  1. Chair of St. Canna
  2. St Canna’s Chair

Archaeology & History

St. Canna’s Chair Stone

This once important healing stone that was moved a short distance (from grid reference SN 1775 1875 to SN 1770 1874 according to officials) to its present spot, around 1925, whilst having a long history according to the folk traditions of Carmarthenshire, was previously questioned as an authentic site by none other than Prof John Rhys (1875), following his visit to the site in the 1870s.  Although Rhys seemed an isolated voice, some modern archaeologists have also questioned its veracity.  It’s difficult to say precisely what the original nature of the stone may have been, but it was certainly accommodated in medieval times as a healing stone and used in conjunction with a pagan well – which was of course, accommodated by the Church.  If the stone itself had a megalithic pedigree, as some have believed, we know not what it may have been…

As Janet & Colin Bord (2006) wrote, the stone “still survives, but to the casual observer it looks like any other abandoned block of stone,” sitting innocuously within the ring of trees surrounding the church.  An early account of the stone was written by E.L. Barnwell (1872), who told:

“The present church of Llangan in Carmarthenshire is a wretched structure, built in 1820, and is about to be removed, as the population has long since migrated to some distance from it, and in a few years even the memory of Canna’s church having once existed here may cease. There is, however, a relic still left, which we trust will not be overlooked by the local authorities, as indeed it seems to have been hitherto ; for no notice occurs of it in the account of the parish in Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary or any other work. This relic is a rude stone, forming a kind of chair, lying in a field adjoining the churchyard, and about thirty or forty yards from it. When it was removed to its present position is unknown. There was also a well below the church called Ffynnon Canna; and there is still a small brook available, if required, for following the rules prescribed to those who wish to avail themselves of the curative powers of the saint’s chair. It appears that the principal maladies which are thus supposed to be cured are ague and intestinal complaints. The prescribed practice was as follows. The patient first threw some pins into the well, a common practice in many other parts of Wales, where wells are still thought to be invested with certain powers. Then he drank a fixed quantity of the water, and sometimes bathed in the well, for the bath was not always resorted to. The third step was to sit down in the chair for a certain length of time; and if the patient could manage to sleep under these circumstances, the curative effects of the operation were considerably increased. This process was continued for some days, even for a fortnight or longer. A man aged seventy-eight, still living near the spot, remembers the well and hundreds of pins in it, as well as patients undergoing the treatment; but, about thirty or thirty- five years ago, the tenant carried off the soil between the well and the watercourse, so as to make the spring level with the well, which soon after partly disappeared, and from that time the medical reputation of the saint and her chair has gradually faded away, and will, in the course of a generation or two, be altogether forgotten.”

Folklore

In Wirt Sykes (1880) classic text, he told us that the field where the original Canna’s Chair may have been, possessed fairy-lore that we find at other sites, usually ascribed as prehistoric.  He wrote:

“In the middle of this parish there is a field called Parc y Fonwent, or the churchyard field, where, according to local tradition, the church was to have been originally built; but the stones brought to the spot during the day were at night removed by invisible hands to the site of the present church.  Watchers in the dark heard the goblins engaged in this work and pronouncing in clear and correct Welsh these words, “Llangan, dyma’r fan,” which means, “Llangan, here is the spot.””

References:

  1. Allen, J. Romilly, The Monumental History of the Early British Church, SPCK: London 1889.
  2. Baring-Gould, S. & Fisher, John, Lives of the British Saints – volume 2, London 1907.
  3. Barnwell, E.L., “Canna’s Chair,” in Archaeologia Cambrensis, volume 3 (4th Series), 1872.
  4. Bord, Janet & Colin, Cures and Curses: Ritual and Cult at Holy Wells, Heart of Albion: Wymeswold 2006.
  5. Breverton, Terry, The Book of Welsh Saints, Bro Morganwg: Glyndwr 2000.
  6. Davies, Jonathan Ceredig, Folk-lore of West and Mid-Wales, Welsh Gazette: Aberystwyth 1911.
  7. “D.M.”, “Canna’s Chair,” in Archaeologia Cambrensis, volume 4 (4th Series), 1875.
  8. Rhys, John, “On Some of Our Inscribed Stones,” in Archaeologia Cambrensis, volume 4 (4th Series), 1875.
  9. Sikes, Wirt, British Goblins, Sampson Low: London 1880.
  10. Sharkey, John (ed.), Ogham Monuments in Wales, Llanerch: Felinfach 1992.
  11. Westwood, J.O., Lapidarium Walliae: The Early Inscribed and Sculptured Stones of Wales, Oxford University Press 1879.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian 


Dunruchan Enclosure, Muthill, Perthshire

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Enclosure: OS Grid Reference – NN 7874 1676

Getting Here

Large arc of vegetation highlighting south section of wall

From Comrie town centre take the road south across Dalginross Bridge over the river, heading towards Braco, up the winding B827 road for 3 miles, past the tiny crossroads that would take you to the Craigneich standing stone, and past the farmhouse of Middleton as you go uphill.  As you go round a bittova large bend in the road, take the next gate uphill, over the field and onto the moor.  Follow the walling up a few hundred yards until it bends round and you see the Dunruchan monoliths ahead of you on the moor. From here, walk east into the heather, up a slight grade for 100 yards or more, keeping your eyes peeled for a large oval change in vegetation, covering a mass of small stones with several large ones at its NW sides.  Your damn close!

Archaeology & History

I can find no previous reference to this large oval walled enclosure, either on the internet, PSAS or other local history texts, so assume for the time being that it is a new find (someone please lemme know if there’s owt written about it). But it’s existence here is not surprising, considering the presence of the giant standing stones of Dunruchan rise a few hundred yards to the east.

Sloping faint oval of vegetation across the centre of the photo outlines the main enclosure

The ‘enclosure’ is a large one and would seem to be prehistoric at first glance. I’d appreciate someone with greater local knowledge have a look at the place to see if they can contextualize it in relation to other local monuments of similar type. Paul Hornby and I approached it from the Duncruchan megaliths and, as the vegetation here was low, noted an overgrown rocky rise in the heather and moorland grasses. This turned out to be the northern line of walling and is nearly 3 feet high in places, though very overgrown. Typically comprising of many hundreds of small rounded stones and the occasional large ones, the walling took on an elliptical form – giving the impression of an early Iron Age to Bronze Age structure – roughly 79 yards in circumference, 29 yards across at its longer axis and 23 yards wide at the shortest. The average width of the walling itself was 2-3 yards all round the entire structure.

My initial impression was that this may have been a very large robbed-out cairn, and the presence of many small rocks scattering inside the enclosure didn’t help! But the more I walked round the site, the more it seemed obvious that this was a large enclosure, or possible settlement. Unfortunately the site has proved very difficult to photograph due to the excess of vegetation. Further visits are needed to this site by those more competent than I, to ascertain the real nature of these antiquarian remains…

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Quarry Hill, Leeds, West Yorkshire

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Settlement (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – SE 309 336

Archaeology & History

Absolutely nothing is left of the large series of ancient earthworks that were reported to have existed near the very centre of Leeds by Ralph Thoresby, James Wardell and others in the 18th and 19th centuries.  Although we do not know with certainty the age and nature of the site, it would seem very likely to have had a prehistoric provenance.  However, this wasn’t the opinion of either Thoresby (1715) or Thomas Whitaker (1816).  They both thought the remains were of Roman origin – but we must remind ourselves of the inaccuracies made, particularly by Whitaker, when it came to estimating the dates of early monuments (e.g., Whitaker’s assertions of the huge Counter Hill earthworks above Addingham).  Sometime later, James Wardell (1853) thought the remains on Quarry Hill were distinctly pre-Roman; though reasoned that the invading force may have used the site at a later date.  Wardell wrote:

“Traces of a prior occupation were, until recently, observable on the summit of Quarry-hill, along the western edge of which ran an earthwork of considerable length and magnitude, and of semi-circular form.”

We know little else of the place, sadly, but the shape of the site around the hilltop edges would seem to support the likelihood of an Iron or Bronze Age origin.  Further information would, of course, be more helpful…

References:

  1. Thoresby, Ralph, Ducatus Leodiensis, Maurice Atkins: London 1715.
  2. Wardell, James, The Antiquities of the Borough of Leeds, Moxon & Walker: Leeds 1853.
  3. Whitaker, Thomas D., Loidis and Elmete, T. Davison: Leeds 1816.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Rushy Beck Spring, Burley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Healing Well:  OS Grid Reference – SE 1403 4544

Getting Here

Source of the Rushy Beck

From Ilkley centre, take the road up to Cow & Calf, going past the hotel and along Hangingstone Road for a half-mile until you meet some walling on the right of the road. Stop and walk up the small beck, veering to the left as you approach the brow of the hill.  Keep walking up the beck onto the moor where you’ll eventually reach its source, as shown in the photo here!

Archaeology & History

This once fast-flowing spring of fresh sparkling water has seen better days.  The site has two openings in the Earth about 10 yards east and west of each other, both discernible by the notable difference in vegetation on the moors here, where richer hues of green created by the waters cut a small channel down the moorland slopes through the usual hues of heather.

The waters taste fine when they’re in flow, but much of the land here has fallen into shallow marsh and with the inevitable falling of the water table thanks to the stupid arrogant Industrialists, very little of the goodness is available.  But it wasn’t always like this.  Certainly when our prehistoric ancestors carved the rock art close by the source of the waters, then later constructed the large ritual enclosure immediately west of the springs, the waters would have been very important—and in much greater profusion—for simple nourishment and for rituals enacted at the site.

 

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Woofa Bank Cairn, Burley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cairn:  OS Grid Reference – SE 1376 4542 

Getting Here

Newly found cairn, looking north

Follow the same directions to reach the Little Skirtful of Stones giant cairn.  From here, walk 200 yards straight north until you hit the footpath at the top of the Woofa Bank crags. Walk left along the footpath and where it begins to slope downhill, note the large boulder right by the path and another 30 yards further on.  Between these large rocks, turn left into the heather some 20 yards.  You’re damn close!

Archaeology & History

Close-up of covered tomb

Rediscovered on March 17, 2012, this small untouched prehistoric stone cairn, measuring 3½ yards by 2½ yards across and about 1 yard tall, was found thanks to the moorland heather being burnt, which has stripped the covering vegetation from the monument.  It rests just a couple of yards away from a small, almost dried-up stream, seemingly in isolation.  There are scattered remains of medieval workings nearby, between here and the Little Skirtful—some of which have intruded upon and destroyed earlier sites—but this particular cairn has a prehistoric pedigree.  An excavation here would be worthwhile sometime in the future; but the problem is, there’s so much neolithic and Bronze Age material all over this area, it’s hard to know where to start!

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Coldstone Beck Cairn (02), Burley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cairn:  OS Grid Reference – SE 1421 4512

Getting Here

Small stone & cairn spoil, looking east

From Burley train station walk up the road, turning right as you meet the moorland road.  Go on for a couple of hundred yards until you run parallel with the Coldstone Beck stream. Walk up here for about 800 yards until the full moorland begins to open up ahead of you. Walk up the slope on your right (west) about 30 yards above the first of the ruined grouse-butts, towards the scattered mass of rocks before the small crags.  The small standing stone on the edge of the ruins will catch your attention!

Archaeology & History

A fascinating small cairn which initially had us puzzling as to its very nature. Was it a cairn? Or was it a section of prehistoric walling? The former would seem to be the more likely, though an excavation here would obviously be helpful.

Standing stone, cairn-spoil & Coldstone valley to rear
Coldstone Cairn 2, looking west

Scanning the Earth hereby we found no surface remains, merely a section of disturbed ground where the small stones were placed and, obviously, removed in some number not too long ago.  Stones from the cairn had obviously been robbed to construct the grouse-butts close by (something the local council officials seem to find acceptable).  It would appear to be consistent in structure with many of the other cairns on this moorland, some of which are neolithic, but the majority date from the Bronze Age.*  This particular cairn seems to be Bronze Age in nature.

The most defining element in the cairn is the small standing stone, less than two feet tall above ground level, within the southwestern area of the denuded tomb.  No carvings could be noted on the stone, nor marks of any significance on the other smaller stones.  Another cairn of similar age but in much better condition—the Coldstone Beck Cairn 01—can be seen when the heather’s burnt back, some 20 yards north.

* More than 100 singular small cairns exist around here, most of which have never been archaeologically assessed.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Coldstone Beck Cairn (01), Burley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cairn:  OS Grid Reference – SE 1421 4514

Getting Here

Coldstone Beck Cairn 1, looking north

From Burley train station walk up the road, turning right as you meet the moorland road.  Go on for a couple of hundred yards until you run parallel with the Coldstone Beck stream. Walk up here for about 800 yards until the full moorland begins to open up ahead of you. Walk up the slope on your right (west) about 40 yards above the first of the ruined grouse-butts, towards the scattered mass of rocks before the small crags.  You’ll have to scout about a bit when the heather’s deep, but it’s there, hiding away!

Archaeology & History

Cairn in centre, looking east towards Otley Chevin

Like many prehistoric tombs on this moorland, this one has never before catalogued.  Found about 20 yards north of Coldstone Beck Cairn 02, this larger and more complete megalithic structure, probably Bronze Age in nature, is of the traditional construction for cairns in this region: of small to medium-sized rocks that can be carried quite easily and deposited over a specified site, beneath which we’ll find either a ruined clay urn, or skeleton, or ashes.

The cairn measures just over 3½ yards in diameter east-west, and 3 yards north-south; it rises nearly a yard tall above ground level at the centre.  Much of the internal construction has been compacted through centuries of soil and vegetational growth, with only the outer rocks of the structure being slightly loose.  There are several other prehistoric cairns of the same size nearby, none of which have been recorded by the regional archaeologist round here.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Oldfield Hill, Meltham, West Yorkshire

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Enclosure:  OS Grid Reference – SE 0874 1009

Getting Here

Oldfield enclosure in the field below

From the crossroads at the centre of Meltham, near the church, take the Wessenden Head Road up out of town for about a mile.  Keep your eyes peeled to right (north) for the track leading downhill to Oldfield Hall or Farm.  As you go down the track you’ll see a small cluster of hawthorns running along a small ridge 100 yards or so ahead, at the end of the field, with some line of embankment. This is on the right of the track and is the Oldfield enclosure!

Archaeology & History

The remains of this large quadrangular settlement were first described as of ‘Roman’ origin in Mr Morehouse’s History of Kirkburton (1861), where he told that,

“In the…township of Meltham are the remains of a Roman encampment, on the moor below West Nab, a short distance to the left of the road which leads thence to the village…forming nearly a square of about four chains.  When I visited the place about twenty years since, in company with the owner and other friends, the whole was very distinct and perfect. This piece of ground has since been brought into cultivation, yet the trenches are still visible.  This encampment would appear only to have been made to supply some temporary emergency.”

Joseph Hughes old drawing of the ‘Roman’ camp
Western embankment & ditch

But Mr Morehouse’s speculation of its Roman origin and function are known to be untrue.  The site is in fact of Iron Age origin and was probably in semi-permanent use for long periods between Spring and Autumn. But the ‘Roman’ nature of the site was echoed a few years later, albeit briefly, in Mr Hughes’ History of Meltham (1866), where he told that “querns or hand-mills for grinding corn were found” at the site.

In 1909, the Saddleworth antiquarian Ammon Wrigley excavated the site but found little that could enable a correct dating of the enclosure. It was explored again a few years later by Ian Richmond and then again by J.P. Toomey in the 1960s.  Bernard Barnes (1982) summarised their respective findings, telling:

“Rampart of rubble and earth 7 feet wide faced with drystone walling; original height c.10 feet; V-shaped rock-cut ditch, 5½ feet deep and 6 feet wide, and a counterscarp bank similar to inner rampart with drystone revetment surviving to 4 courses.  Northeast entrance had double timber gateway.  Pre-rampart palisade trench on at least 2 sides of the enclosure with vertical posts 2 feet apart.  Finds include 2 stone discs, rough out beehive quern, iron slag and very small fragments of pottery.  Site dated to Iron Age.”

Another enclosure of similar period can be found a few hundred yards to the south.

…to be continued…

References:

  1. Abraham, John Harris, Hidden Prehistory around the North West, Kindle 2012.
  2. Barnes, Bernard, Man and the Changing Landscape, Eaton: Merseyside 1982.
  3. Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Milverton 2001.
  4. Hughes, Joseph, The History of the Township of Meltham, John Russell Smith: London 1866.
  5. Morehouse, Henry James, The History and Topography of the Parish of Kirkburton, H. Roebuck: Huddersfield 1861.
  6. Toomey, J.P., An Iron Age Enclosure at Oldfield Hill, Meltham, Brigantian: Huddersfield 1976.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Ashlar Chair, Burley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Legendary Rock:  OS Grid Reference – SE 12075 44833

Ashlar Chair, looking southeast

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.111 (Hedges)
  2. Carving no.115 (Boughey & Vickerman)
  3. Druid’s Chair
  4. Etching Stone

Getting Here

There are two large boulders here, one of which was deemed the Ashlar many moons back. You can approach it from the lazy way: park y’ car at the top of the road by the Whetstone Gate TV masts and walk east right along the boundary path till you get here. The better way is from Twelve Apostles: from there walk a coupla hundred yards north to the Lanshaw Lad boundary stone, where a small path heads west. Along here for another coupla hundred yards, then hit the footpath south for the roughly the same distance again. You’ve arrived!

Archaeology & History

The Ashlar Chair is ascribed in folklore, said Harry Speight (1892), “to be a relic of druidism,” as one of its titles in ages past was the Druid’s Chair.  In the nineteenth century it also became known as the Etching Stone, (Smith 1961-63) but it has retained its present title for more than two hundred years.  Shaped more like a couch than a chair, its present title—the Ashlar—is important in ritual Freemasonry, which has two aspects to it: the ‘rough’ and the ‘perfect’.  The first represents the neophyte; the latter, the illumined one.  Oaths are sworn on the ashlar, and laws are spoken from it.  In its higher aspect it is representative of the spiritual maturity  of evolved man.

Ashlar Chair on 1851 map

Although there are no public records as to who gave the site its present name, the land which lays before it, The Square, is an even greater indicator that this rock was was considerably more than just a curious place-name, for the open moorland that is overseen from Ashlar Chair—The Square — is 396,000 square yards of flat open heathlands that have never been archaeologically explored.  The Square is also one of the most important elements of Freemasonry: representing the manifest universe, its laws are spoken from the Ashlar. (Jones 1950)

Between the two of them, represented here in the landscape near the very tops of these moors, we have a form of late geomancy, although the names of our geomancers are nowhere to be found.  It is obvious though, simply from the name of the land, that dramatic ritual of some form was enacted here.  In recent times, ritual magickians from differing Orders have found the place most effective, as have wiccan folk and other pagans who have frequented it at the summer solstice.  The possibility that some members of the Grand Lodge of ALL England (a legendary Masonic Order, said by the modern London masons not to have existed until the eighteenth century) gave this place its name is not unreasonable.  Records show that in the fourteenth century at least one member of the Order, Sir Walter Hawksworth, frequented ritual circles on these moors; and another member of the same Lodge from the nearby Washburn valley was an ally to the Pendle and Washburn witches who, we know, met on these moors at Twelve Apostles stone circle and probably the Ashlar.  But it proves nothing I suppose. (I tend to believe (not a necessarily healthy viewpoint) that the Grand Lodge did use the Ashlar as one of their moot points, along with the Pendle and Washburn witches.)

Its primary geomantic attribute is as an omphalos.  Geographically the Ashlar Chair is the meeting-point of Bingley, Burley, Morton and Ilkley moors and, metaphorically speaking, when you stand here you are outside the confines of the four worlds yet still a purveyor of them.

Nature’s cups-and-grooves on the Ashlar

Upon the large rock itself it are carved the faint initials, “MM, BTP, ISP and IG, 1826.”  Several early records described cup-and-ring designs on the Ashlar: firstly in Forrest & Grainge’s (1868) archaeological tour; then in Collyer & Turner’s Ilkley (1885); and lastly by the great Yorkshire historian and topographer Harry Speight (1892, 1900), who said “it bears numerous cups and channels.”  Although we can see some of these on top of the Ashlar, they are mainly Nature’s handiwork.  It is possible that some man-made cup-and-rings once existed on the rock, but if so they have eroded over time.

References:

  1. Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Milverton 2001.
  2. Collyer, Robert & Turner, J.H., Ilkley Ancient & Modern, William Walker: Leeds 1885.
  3. Forrest, C. & Grainge, William, A Ramble on Rumbald’s Moor, among the Dwellings, Cairns and Circles of the Ancient Britons in the Summer of 1867 – Part 1, W.T. Lamb: Wakefield 1868.
  4. Jones, Bernard E., Freemason’s Guide and Compendium, Harrap: London 1950.
  5. Speight, Harry, Chronicles & Stories of Old Bingley and District, Elliott Stock: London 1892.
  6. Speight, Harry, Upper Wharfedale, Elliott Stock: London 1900.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian