Chatton

Highburn House, Wooler, Northumberland

28/07/202628/07/2026 megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone (lost): OS Grid Reference – NT 98491 28424

Archaeology & History

This carving was rediscovered by rock art explorer Jan Broewer in September, 2007, a few hundred yards out of Wooler on the way to Akeld and Kirknewton, in the field on the right-hand side of the road, on the embankment just a few inches above the waters of the High Burn. On a recent visit here by Tom Cleland and I, despite us rummaging amidst the gorse and other herbage all along the edge of the waters, we were unable to locate the carving and presume that it has either been destroyed or re-housed in someone’s garden, living a more comfortable life. We certainly hope it’s the latter!

It’s design is nothing special: merely a singular, albeit scruffy cup-and-ring, with two other distinct pecked cup-marks and, possibly, a third shallow one just to the side of the cup-and-ring (but this is, in my opinion, highly suspect). The stone was obviously not in its original position when Jan first found it, and would seem to have come originally from the slope above the stream where a number of earthfast stones can be found. The numerous scratches across its surface shows that it’s been hit a few times by some (probably) metallic objects, or perhaps horses hooves, thus dislodging it from the slope above and rolling into the spot where Jan found it. Anyhow, we presently don’t know where it is or what’s become of it. Does anyone in Wooler know where it’s living?

Acknowledgements: Huge thanks to Pete Chattaway for use of his photo; and to Tom Cleland for helping the search party!

West Horton (1a), Chatton, Northumberland

19/07/202619/07/2026 megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – NU 02328 31349

Getting Here

We took the B6348 road up east, from Wooler, turning left 2 miles up and crossing the small river bridge, going past Weetwood Hall where the road bends to the right and goes uphill for about a mile where, just before West Horton farm, there’s a a dirt-track on your left. 200 hards up, walk past the farm up and along the dead straight track for another 400 yards until you hit the field. Diagonally ahead of you (NW) less than 100 yards away, a small hillock rises in the field where a large metal animal feed-trough sits. Once there, the slope to your right (east) is where the stone lives. If you potter about you’ll find it.

Archaeology & History

On a visit to the impressive West Horton carvings on one of the searing hot days recently, Tom Cleland and I thought to check on an otherwise unimpressive petroglyph on a rocky rise of land before heading to the beauties 250 yards northwest of here. The covering soil around a scatter of earthfast rocks on this rise in the land had been eroded by cattle and on one of them we noted what seemed to be a distinct cup-marking. And, as happens when you look closer, a more expansive design came into being.

On the east-sloping-face of this rock are between six and seven cup-marks, most of them quite distinct. The topmost of the cups has a faint incomplete ring round it which you can just make out in a couple of the photos. It seemed that there was another even fainter ring around one of the other cups, but on the day we visited this the heat was taking its toll of me and I could only stand a short time before we had to move, so we left without getting any good images of the other ring.

It’s more then likely that other unrecorded carvings are hiding beneath the soil which, no doubt, the cattle will slowly help uncover as the years go by. 🙂 A little further up the slope from here, approaching the West Horton (1b) carving, a small oval-shaped rock has what looks like a single cup-mark on it and another, more recent marking at its side. This impression is likely due to an incision made by the metal legs of one of the animal feeders and is unlikely to be prehistoric.

Crowbar Stone, Weetwood Moor, Wooler, Northumbria

30/01/201004/01/2022 megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – NU 021 278

Also known as:

North Plantation 3
Fowberry Moor Stone 3

Archaeology & History

Fowberry Moor CR3 (Davison 1934) — Davison’s sketch

This is an excellent-looking carving which, it would seem, remains buried in the Earth nice n’ sleepy! Located “in the inner rampart on the south side of an unrecorded camp in North Plantation, Fowberry Moor, Chatton,” the carving was unexpectedly found during some basic excavation work on the camp itself. Described and illustrated by W.B. Davison (1934), this was one of two cup-and-ring stones hereby. He reckoned it wasn’t in its original position and seems – from the illustration here – to have been etched onto a fallen monolith. Davison’s detailed description told:

“The…stone was completely excavated and was found to be built into the inner rampart across its track. This stone measures 7’6″ north to south, is 1’2″ wide at its north end, 1’11” at its widest part, and 1’3″ at its foot. The average depth is 2’6″. The base is rough-surfaced and is prow-shaped at the northern end.

“Incised markings occur on the top only, and are as follows, reading from north to south. 1 cup surrounded by a ring and a half-ring lying east to west by south. 1 small cup. 1 cup. 1 cup surrounded by four rings, the largest of which has a diameter of 13½”. On the top of the outer ring occurs an abutting semicircle enclosing a cup. On the accompanying (image) will be observed what appears to be another cup on the innermost ring. 1 cup. 1 cup surrounded by a ring and a half-ring lying north to south by west. This marking rests on a two-inch deep slot possibly made for quarrying purposes. No other markings occur between this slot and the foot of the stone. Tool marks are very distinct on some of the above markings.”

Rock art researchers Jan Brouwer (2007) and Stan Beckensall have searched unsuccessfully for the stone in recent years.

References:

Beckensall, Stan, Northumberland’s Prehistoric Rock Carvings, Pendulum: Rothbury 1983.
Beckensall, Stan, Prehistoric Rock Art in Northumberland, Tempus: Stroud 2001.
Brouwer, Jan, ‘In Search of the Crowbar Stone,’ BRAC 2007.
Davison, W.B., ‘Cup-and-Ring Marked Rocks at Fowberry Park,’ in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (4th Series), 4:7, October 1934.