carvings

Cleland Stone, Skipton, North Yorkshire

16/01/202516/01/2025 megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 00076 50540

From near Skipton town centre, at the Cross Keys Inn along Otley Road, go up Short Bank Road all the way to the very top and then into the trees onto the Dales High Way footpath. Walk up for literally ¼-mile (0.4km) and where the path bends and heads ENE, notice here a footpath that takes you over the wall. Once on the other side, the path splits with one heading SE and the other roughly alongside the walling to the SW, which is where you need to go. About 200 yard on, go through the gate into the field and then another 375 yards on you’re into another field (copse of trees in front of you). Just as you’ve gone into this field, walk immediately left, uphill, by the walling for about 100 yards, over the marshy dip, then head into the field where, about 75 yards in, you’ll see some rocks scattered about…

Archaeology & History

In an area that’s had some considerable quarrying done to it, we’re lucky to find that this carving still exists. It was rediscovered by Thomas Cleland (hence its name!) in the summer of 2024. It consists of four distinct cups, with a possible fifth (and maybe more?) on its smooth elongated surface. The cups, as we can see, are quite deep and unmistakable. An incomplete ring seems to be around at least one of the cups; and there seems to be a carved straight line running between another two of them. A simple but distinct design and in a lovely setting gazing cross the Airedale valley from here.

There are very few other carvings in this neck o’ the woods (the Great Laithe Wood carving aint too far away), but the fact that this has been found would suggest that others are probably hiding away in the undergrowth. Check out the Iron Age Horse Close Hill enclosure while you’re up here too.

Acknowledgements: A huge thanks to Thomas Cleland, not only for finding the carving, but also for allowing use of his photos in this site profile.

Lamancha, Newlands, Peeblesshire

13/01/202516/01/2025 megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – NT 200 522

Also Known as:

La Mancha

Archaeology & History

This is what I’ve come to term dyslexic cup-and-rings, due simply to the fact that it’s a cup-and-ring stone carving, but the cup in the centre hasn’t been carved out or pecked away. They’re rare – but for some odd reason, a small cluster of them occurs in this part of lowland Scotland. The Drumelzier carving 13 miles SSW is one; Carnwath carving is 14 miles west another; the multiple-ringed carving in the Woodend cairn had no defined pivotal cup, 14 miles south; and in Childe & Taylor’s (1938) short piece on the Hawthornden petroglyphs near Roslyn (less than 10 miles northeast), they noted—like Simpson & Thawley (1972) years later—the peculiarity of “the complete absence of cups”, akin to Lamancha’s carved rings. (although we have to be sceptical about the archiac nature of the Hawthornden carvings)

The carving here was first mentioned by one of the great petroglyphic pioneers James Simpson (1866; 1867):

“A broken slab, about two feet square, covered with very rude double rings and a spiral circle, was found by Mr Mackintosh, at La Mancha, in Peeblesshire, in digging in a bank of gravel. There were some other large stones near it; none of them marked. Possibly this stone, therefore, is sepulchral in its character.”

Lamancha carving (G. & A. Ritchie, 1972 )

Eoin MacWhite (1946) was somewhat sceptical of Simpson’s “sepulchral” association, simple due to their being no record of a burial here. But in Simpson & Thawley’s (1972) survey of passage grave art, they thought the Lamancha carving was from “a possible cist slab.” We might never know for sure one way or the other.

The carving ended up living in Edinburgh’s National Museum where it should hopefully still be on display. As a result of this, it received the attention of the Royal Commission doods who gave a good description of the design in their Peeblesshire Inventory (1967). They state that it

“is irregular in shape and has maximum dimensions of 2ft 6in by 1ft 10in; it averages 4in in thickness. The markings, which have all been formed by the pecking technique, occur mainly on one face, the most common symbol being single or double rings. There are four complete double-ring symbols, in which the outer rings measure from 5in to 7in in diameter, and the inner rings from 2in to 4in. Round the margin of the face there are the broken arcs of five more double-ring symbols and of five single rings and one small V -shaped figure. As well as the ring markings there is a double-spiral, each lobe of which measures about 4in in diameter. In one lobe the spiral has two and a half turns and in the other only one turn. In addition, in a space which is otherwise free of markings, there is an area, about 4in square, heavily pitted with punch-marks measuring one-eighth of an inch across and one-sixteenth of an inch in depth. A remarkable feature of the stone is that three incomplete single ring symbols have been made on one edge. They have been formed by the same technique and measure 3in across; as in all the other symbols, the grooves themselves measure about half an inch in width and about one-eighth of an inch in depth.”

References:

Childe, V.G. & Taylor, John, “Rock Scribings at Hawthornden, Midlothian,” in Proceedings Society Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 73, 1938.
McWhite, Eoin, 1946 “A New View on Irish Bronze Age Rock-Scriblings”, in Journal Royal Society Antiquaries, Ireland, vol. 76, 1946.
Morris, Ronald W.B., “The Cup-and-Ring Marks and Similar Sculptures of South-West Scotland,” in Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society, volume 14, 1967.
Morris, Ronald W.B., “The Cup-and-Ring and Similar Early Sculptures of Scotland; Part 2 – The Rest of Scotland except Kintyre,” in Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society, volume 16, 1969.
Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Southern Scotland, BAR: Oxford 1981.
Ritchie, Graham & Anna, Edinburgh and South-East Scotland, Heinnemann: London 1972.
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments, Scotland, Peeblesshire – volume 1, Aberdeen University Press 1967.
Simpson, D.D.A. & Thawley, J.E., “Single Grave Art in Britain,” in Scottish Archaeological Forum, no.4, 1972.
Simpson, J.Y., “On Ancient Sculpturings of Cups and Concentric Rings,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 6, 1866.
Simpson, James, Archaic Sculpturings of Cups, Circles, etc., Upon Stones and Rocks in Scotland, England and other Countries, Edmonston & Douglas: Edinburgh 1867.

Hallyne, Peebles, Peeblesshire

27/11/202429/11/2024 megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone (removed): OS Grid Reference – NT 1872 4072

Archaeology & History

Included in the standard catalogues by Ronald Morris (1967; 1969), this carving was brought to light fortuitously by the local farmer who, thankfully, recognized its archaeological importance. Etched into a small flat broken block of stone, he noticed a cup-marking and the remains of a triple-ring around it, with grooves running out from the central cup. It was described in detail by the Royal Commission (1967) lads in their county survey where they told:

R.W.B. Morris’ 1967 photo

Hallyne carving in Peebles Museum

“During the excavations at the Roman fort at Lyne…in June 1959, a stone bearing cup-and-ring markings was found lying beside the fence that crosses the North Annexe. According to local information it was found while ploughing in the field on the NE side of the fence. It is a sandstone block, measuring 1ft 5in by one foot, and with an average thickness of 8in. It is clearly a mere fragment of what must have been a larger slab, but it is impossible to estimate its original dimensions. The markings consist of a single well-formed cup, 2in in diameter and three-quarters of an inch in depth, now partly surrounded by the broken arcs of three rings, which, if complete, would measures about 4in, 7in and 10in in diameter respectively. The rings are all half an inch in width and one eighth of an inch in depth. From the innermost ring two radial grooves, set one inch apart, extend outwards for a maximum distance of 4in. They interrupt the two outer rings, which stop short on either side of them, leaving a gap of about half an inch. The grooves are slightly narrower and shallower than the rings. The whole symbol has been formed by the pecking technique and punchmarks are still remarkably fresh. Outside the outermost ring there is a very shallow depression, one inch in diameter, which may be another cup-mark; in addition there are several recent scars caused by the plough.”

It was moved to the museum in Peebles shortly after being found and remains there to this day, apparently. I’ve not seen it.

References:

Morris, Ronald W.B., “The Cup-and-Ring Marks and Similar Sculptures of South-West Scotland,” in Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society, volume 14, 1967.
Morris, Ronald W.B., “The Cup-and-Ring and Similar Early Sculptures of Scotland; Part 2 – The Rest of Scotland except Kintyre,” in Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society, volume 16, 1969.
Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Southern Scotland, BAR: Oxford 1981.
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Peeblesshire – volume 1, HMSO: Edinburgh 1967.

Lane End, Baildon, Shipley, West Yorkshire

03/10/202427/10/2024 megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – SE 152 393

Also Known as:

Carving no.195

Archaeology & History

A basic cup-marked stone could once be seen up near the top of the slope behind the Bay Horse pub as you’re heading up to Baildon village. The site would seem to have been destroyed following the demolition of buildings thereby. A photograph of the carving was taken and it was described, albeit briefly, by Sidney Jackson (1961), who told:

“A small boulder with two cups in it was found at the junction of a narrow bye road leading to 30 Lane Ends, Baildon, with the road which runs behind the Bay Horse Inn, on 12 April (1961), by Mr Alan E. Rowe, 10 Beaufort Grove, Bolton, Bradford and a photograph of it was taken for the Museum Reference Collection.”

Years back I contacted the Bradford Museum about this photo and they were about as helpful as a zionist in Palestine! – i.e., I never got to see it. It would be good if someone could locate the image.

References:

Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.
Jackson, Sidney, “Cup-marked Boulders, Baildon Finds,” in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, volume 6, no. 6, 1961.

Snowden Carr (570a), Timble, North Yorkshire

29/09/202430/09/2024 megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 1777 5128

Getting Here

From the Askwith Moor car-park (SE 1757 5067), walk along the road north for a few hundred yards until you reach the gate on your right and head through the heather to the Death’s Head carving. From here walk in a northwesterly direction up the gentle slope for 50-60 yards and, before reaching its crown, keep your eyes peeled for a low flat stone with a curvaceous crack running roughly halfway across it. If the heather’s deep, you might not have a cat in hell’s chance of finding it!

Archaeology & History

This carving isn’t much to look at on two levels: i) it’s a pretty simplistic design with no rings, and (ii) it’s very faint and almost impossible to see until the light is just right—except for one of the cups, which itself might be natural (there are a few like that amidst the Askwith complex). It’s very much a carving for the purists among you, as I always say. Nonetheless, for the record:

The most notable element is the single “cup mark” on the more easterly section of the stone, on one side of the natural crack. It catches your eye and is what makes you give the stone a little more attention, although I couldn’t make up my mind whether this was Nature’s handiwork or humans. It may be a bit of both. On the other side the crack we can see a small group of very faint eroded cup-marks — just! What seems to be three of them cluster in a small triangle formation, but one of these may be natural (tis hard to say for sure), with another isolated cup closer to the crack, and a final one further to the outer edge of the stone. All are very faint but stood out when the sun was low on our recent visit here. Give it your attention when you’re next having a look at the settlement and cairnfield close by.

Snowden Carr, Askwith Moor, North Yorkshire

27/09/202429/09/2024 megalithix

Ring Cairn: OS Grid Reference – SE 1786 5129

Getting Here

From the Askwith Moor car-park (SE 1757 5067), walk along the road north for several hundred yards and go through the gate on your right. Head northeast through the heather to the Death’s Head carving and keep along the same direction for barely another hundred yards onto the ever-so-slight crown of a small hillock. This is a hut circle you’re standing in/on. A few yards away just to the southeast of where you’re standing is the very denuded remains of this ring cairn.

Archaeology & History

Not visible when the heather’s in full growth, it’s nonetheless worth visiting if you’re trying to get a picture of the prehistoric landscape hereby. Less than 10 yards southeast of the notable hut circle on the small crown of a hill, it was first noticed by Sarah Walker on a group visit here recently. Roughly 12 yards across, the most notable section of the circle is the remains of the rubble bank on its east and southeastern sides, raised a few feet above ground level. The majority of the monument comprises of a scatter of various rocks and small stones within and round the edges of the circle. There’s a lot of scattering from other adjacent remains, such as the hut circle and nearby walling, that give the initial impression of it being little more than a spurious mess of stone; but the more you walk around and inside it, the more you come to recognize its structure.

It has that Bronze Age hallmark look about it, but without an excavation this is just educated guesswork. It might actually be older. The widespread mass of prehistoric remains all round here shows that it was once a mass of activity in prehistoric times. It’s a brilliant area, even if you can’t find this particular site!

Hornbeam Farm, Harrogate, North Yorkshire

27/09/202427/09/2024 megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone (destroyed?): OS Grid Reference – SE 314 537

Archaeology & History

The chances of this carving still being alive, so to speak, are pretty slim. It was reported by a Mr. Sullivan to the old Yorkshire petroglyph researcher Stuart Feather back in 1965, in the days when English archaeologists didn’t really give a shit about rock art. Sad but true. The carving was found in the grounds of what used to be the ICI Fibres Research Centre, in the present landscape of Hornbeam Business Park, a hundred yards or more west of Hookstone Beck. According to Feather’s report, the carving consisted of “a single-ringed cup and a groove” surrounding “two short pecked grooves and a meandering groove leading off,” all with clear signs of being pecked and carved in the old-school manner. All trace of the carving has vanished and it was probably destroyed by the Industrialists. (the grid-reference to this site is an approximation)

Snowden Carr (566a), Timble, North Yorkshire

27/09/202427/09/2024 megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 17724 51258

Getting Here

Easiest way is to park up at the Askwith Moor car-park spot, turn right and walk along the road for about 350 yards until you reach the gate on the right (not the one across the road!). You then need to head to the Death Head’s Stone carving about 450 yards across the moor to the east. It’s pretty conspicuous. From here, walk through the heather 80-odd yards northwest. You’ll walk past some extensive rubble walling (whose nature yet eludes us) before you get there.

Archaeology & History

Discovered recently by Sarah Walker on a venture to see the extensive settlement and graveyard around Snowden Crags, this petroglyph is a simple basic design cut into a relatively large flat stone just above ground level. Found less than 100 yards east of the dubious Snowden Carr (565) carving, there are two large cup-marks on this one: one of them is an inch deep and two-inches across and may originally have been geophysical in nature, but has subsequently been worked by human hands. To its side is another much fainter and shallower cup-mark about the same width. On some photos there’s what appears to be a very faint large ring surrounding the faint cup, but until visits are made at low sun and the stone brushed with water, we cannot be sure whether it’s real or just a trick of the light. There may be more cups on this stone beneath the peat. We didn’t brush it all off.

Some 30-40 yards to the east is the rubble of an extensive prehistoric man-made structure, the nature of which has yet to be discerned. The Snowden Moor cairnfield begins immediately to the northwest, with the first tomb barely 50 yards away.

Giant’s Chair, Addingham High Moor, West Yorkshire

25/07/202430/07/2024 megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 07450 46658

Also Known as:

Carving no.230 (Hedges)
Carving no.56 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

The easiest way to get reach here is via the Doubler Stones, which is usually approached either from the long and winding country lanes Silsden-side (you can’t drive all the way and there are hardly any parking spots en route), or from a long walk over the moors. Taking the latter route, probably the easiest is by starting at Whetstone Gate right on the moortop, on the Ilkley-Keighley road. From here, walk west along the footpath by the wallside for more than ½-mile until you reach the West Buckstones. From here, take the footpath NW (not SW) alongside the walling for literally one mile, where a notable angular skewing of three walls appears: keep to the left and walk alongside that wall for another ⅓-mile (0.5km) then climb over the wall and head straight for the small TV mast. The Giant’s Chair’s just below it.

Archaeology & History

Back of Giant’s Chair, with Doubler Stones behind

Some time in the mid- to late-1970s, on one of our early ventures to see the legendary Doubler Stones, this great rock outcrop of the Giant’s Chair also, understandably, drew our attention. And, as young fertile teenage lads, we all but flew up onto the top of this great rocky rise with relative ease. Now, nearly fifty years later, I’m unable to climb onto its top without ropes. (sigh….) It’s not easy. Anyhow, when we were on top of this rock as kids, a number of notable cup-markings stood out to us—in no distinct order, as I recall. But on the day of our clambering visit, She was grey and overcast; as She was on the two or three other visits we made to the stone, sitting on its top, fondling the cup-marks and eating our sarnies. All that I ever noticed were the cup-markings.

A few years after my early visits here, John Hedges (1986) wrote about this “very large high rock.” He mentioneed the cup-markings, obviously, but he also mentioned some things that we’d missed, saying that here are,

“Six large shallow worn cups, one with (a) partial ring and another with possible ring. One cup on SW end.”

Sadly, I’ve never seen these rings and, these days, my ageing bones might not allow me back onto its surface to see them. (the expression, “sad bastard” comes to mind!) On a recent visit here with Sarah Walker of Silsden, neither of us could get our useless arses on top! (the photos taken here were done with me stood on top of an adjacent rock, hands held high, trying to get at least some elements of the carving—with a minor bit of success, I think) I take comfort in the fact that when Boughey & Vickerman (2003) subsequently added this carving in their enlarged inventory, that they never got to see them either, as they gave it the completely wrong grid-reference! And so, due to the ineptitude of us old folk, I await some younger and more competent explorers who can climb up on top and send us some good photos of the design, when weather and lighting conditions allow for good imagery. Are there any takers…?

References:

Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.
Deacon, Vivien, The Rock Art Landscapes of Rombalds Moor, West Yorkshire, ArchaeoPress: Oxford 2020.
Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.

Acknowledgements: Big thanks to Sarah Walker for helping, albeit unsuccessfully, to scale this old rock to see the cup-and-rings on my last visit here. At least we tried…

Addingham Crag (02), Ilkley Moor, West Yorkshire

07/07/202427/09/2024 megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 07905 47268

Getting Here

For those who like a walk: take the route to reach the Swastika Stone and keep walking west along the Millenium Way footpath, past the Piper’s Stone carving and over the next two walls. Then, stagger down the steep hill and head for the large upright near-cuboid block of stone and, once here, walk 30 yards to your east! Alternatively, from the Silsden-side, go along Brown Bank Lane up and past Brown Bank caravan park, and at the second crossroads turn right and travel for exactly 1¼ miles (2km) along Straight Lane (from hereon there’s nowhere to park!) which runs naturally into Moorside Lane, and notice the raised gate entrance into the field on your right. Walk to the top of this field, go through the next gate and, less than 100 yards uphill (south) you’ll find the stone in question.

Archaeology & History

Rediscovered by Paul Bowers in 2011, this is another one of those petroglyphs that’s difficult to make out unless the light is falling just right across the surface of the stone. Two distinct cup-marks can be seen near the more southern-edge of the stone, one of which has a near-complete, albeit unfinished ring around it, and from this a seemingly carved line runs roughly parallel with the edge of the stone, down towards another equally distinct cup close to the southwestern edge of the rock. Most of the stone is nicely covered in a decent lichen cover, so the design’s a bit difficult to see when the light’s not right. But, if you’ve made it this far, the petroglyph 30 yards to the west will make up for any disappointment you may have!

References:

Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding Supplement, 2018.