Tag: Cup-and-Ring Stones

Baildon Moor Carving (169), West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 13838 40138

Getting Here

Basic cup&ring design

From Shipley Glen, walk up to the Dobrudden caravan park on the western side pof Baildon Hill and then in the long grasses immediately north of here, on the Low Plain, this old carving could once be found.  I’m told it’s been moved in recent years (but have a mooch round anyway – there’s a number of other old cup-and-rings in the locale).

Archaeology & History

This small carving is not in its original position, having been moved to where it now sits a short distance northeast of the Dobrudden caravan park.  It was first described briefly in Mr Baildon’s magnum opus here, seemingly omitted from the Hedges (1986) and reclassified as ‘stone 169’ by Boughey & Vickerman (2003).  I’m not 100% certain that the illustration here by Joseph Rycroft and carving no.169 are one and the same – but they seem incredibly alike.  If anyone knows for sure, one way or the other, please lemme know and I’ll amend as necessary!

References:

  1. Baildon, W. Paley, Baildon and the Baildons – part 7, Adelphi Press: London 1913.
  2. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
  3. Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Pike Hill, Stamfordham, Northumbria

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NZ 0774 7048

Archaeology & History

1928 photo of carving

Found inside a prehistoric tomb that was excavated in the late 1920s “by Messrs R.C. and W.P. Hedley at Pike Hill, near Stamfordham,” this fascinating-looking carving was found on a stone that “was overlying the primary burial” cist in the middle of the tumulus, measuring “2 feet 9 inches long by 2 feet wide and 12 inches deep, with an orientation on the longer axis of NE.”  As we can see in the old photo that accompanied Mr Hedley’s (1928) short article in Antiquity journal, four single cups are arranged in a rough square and are joined with each other by a single line, running from cup to cup, outlining a clear quadrilateral formation.  Two other single cups are outliers on the left and right side of the ‘square.’

A second smaller cist was also found inside the same mound and on the central inner face of this was another, more simplistic carving described as “a very fine cup-mark 1½ inch in diameter and ¾-inch deep.”  These carvings are no longer in situ (I think they’re in Newcastle Museum) and apparently this second single cup-marked stone can no longer be located.

References:

  1. Beckensall, Stan, Northumberland’s Prehistoric Rock Carvings, Pendulum: Rothbury 1983.
  2. Beckensall, Stan, Prehistoric Rock Motifs of Northumberland – volume 2: Beanley to the Tyne, Abbey Press: Hexham 1992.
  3. Hedley, R. Cecil, “Ancient British Burials, Northumberland,” in Antiquity Journal, volume 2, December 1928.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Clach na Sithean, Strathtay, Perthshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 895 531

Also Known as:

  1. Balendune
  2. Ballinduin

Folklore

This large cup-marked stone was known by local people as the Clach na Sithean, or the stone of the fairies.  Its smooth surface and well-cut grooves was said to be due to the fairies sharpening their knives upon it, and the straight cuts or grooves were tests of the keenness of their blades.

In addition to the fairies having hold over this stone, a brownie creature also roamed between here and the burn of Allt Mor.  Although a dutiful creature, he commonly used to scare the women when they returned from the ceilidhs by chasing them and screaming a curious noise at them. But as well as this, he would also enter the local houses and farms after nightfall and, when the local folk were asleep, would clean the supper dishes and put them in their rightful places. But if there was no work to be done once he had entered their homes, he would take the dishes out and place them on the floors where they would be found in the morning by perplexed householders.  Then they’d know that the brownie had visited. Sometimes he was a great help to the housewives, other times a nuisance.  He became known to local people as Puddlefoot, or Cas an Lubain, but so offended was he by the name when he heard it, that he let out an almighty scream and vanished, never to be seen again.

References:

  1. Kennedy, James, Folklore and Reminiscences of Strathtay and Grandtully, Munro Press: Perth 1927.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Baildon Moor (126), West Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 13066 40095

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.9 (Hedges)
  2. Central Design Stone

Getting Here

Arc of deep cups

From the old Glen House pub, walk up the road onto ‘Shipley Glen’ as all locals call the place.  Go up the Glen Road for about half a mile, watching out for the small dirt-track turning going the slope on your left-hand side just near where the road starting swerving uphill to the right.  At this point where the track heads down and into the trees, there’s a footpath going into the bracken along to the right, heading onto level ground.  Walk up and along here.  After 100 yards or so you’ll notice the disused quarry on your left.  Keep walking along the footpath (two end up running parallel to each other) and you’ll see this carving right beneath your feet!

Archaeology & History

Baildon Moor carving 126

This was one of the very first examples of “cup and ring stones” that I ever saw, when I was a mere 10 or 11 years old!  I’m not quite sure what I expected to find, but something about this stone with its deeply set cup-markings obviously had an effect on me – as I’m still foraging about looking at them more than 35 years later!  About 20 yards away from the Glovershaw quarry carving (Baildon Moor 122), this central design stone — as I used to call it — was first recorded in W. Paley Baildon’s (1913) magnum opus and was then all-but-forgotten until the Bradford Archaeology Group mentioned it again more than forty years later.  Although you can only see three distinct cups on this small rock, another 2 or 3 seem in evidence under better lighting conditions, and a small line runs below the cups in the photo here, which you can just make out above the central cup.

This carving and others close by give the distinct impression that they were once part of some seemingly lost cairn-field, awaiting rediscovery…

References:

  1. Baildon, W. Paley, Baildon and the Baildons – parts 1-15, Adelphi: London 1913-1926.
  2. Bennett, Paul, Of Cups and Rings and Things, unpublished: Shipley 1981.
  3. Bennett, Paul, Megalithic Ramblings between Ilkley and Baildon, unpublished: Shipley 1982.
  4. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Leeds 2003.
  5. Cowling, Eric T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
  6. Hedges, John, The Carved Rocks on Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Winter Hill Stone, Cowling, North Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SD 98288 41976

Getting Here

Winter Hill Stone, looking NW

The easiest way to get here if you’re coming for the first time is via the A6068 Glusburn to Cowling road. On the south side of Cowling, take the small road Old Lane, uphill on the east side of the road (very easily missed – keep your eyes peeled!) and keep going up until the road just about levels out, where there’s a muddy parking spot on your left (the giant Wainman’s pinnacle is down the path from here).  Cross over the road and head up towards the giant Hitching Stone. When you reach the first fence, cross over it and follow it into the boggy heathlands to your right (west-ish).  Head into the tribbly grass and keep walking for 3-400 yards till you see the large rock growing out of the Earth.

Archaeology & History

Cup-markings near ground-level
Looking from above

Not far from the legendary Hitching Stone is this curiously-shaped boulder sitting peacefully and alone in its landscape.  It is in fact a large cup-marked boulder, previously unrecorded until being described in The Old Stones of Elmet.  On top of the stone it seems that there are no definite man-made cup-markings, but there are a number of seemingly natural ones (although some could have been etched thousands of years ago and have just eroded well); instead the real cup-markings are found curiously etched at the base of this large rock, just above ground-level.

Hitching Stone on horizon

As can be seen in the photos, on its lower south-facing edge there are around 20 well-defined cups that clearly stand out.  No other cup-marked stones appear to be nearby (surely there’s a few more kicking about in the area…?).

An earlier assertion I made (2001) about the nearby Hitching Stone aligning with the winter solstice sunrise from here was recently put to bed following the morning observations of myself and Dave Hazell on December 21st, 2010, when — as can be seen in the photo here — the midwinter sun emerges from the land a few degrees of arc further southeast than expected.  However, I aint checked what the alignment here would have been when the cup-markings were first etched here, around 5000 years ago perhaps…  Would any of you archaeo-astronomers out there know about this?

References:

  1. Bennett, P., The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Milverton 2001.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Middleton Moor Carving (008), North Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 10666 52789

Getting Here

Cup Marked Stone, Middleton Moor top

From the little hamlet of Langbar, head up to the steep footpath to Beamsley Beacon and from there along the footpath get yourself between the giant cairn known as The Old Pike and Round Hill.  About halfway between these two points the moor levels out (with brilliant views in all directions) and 200 yards southeast of the upright boundary stone, this well-defined carved rock is just a few yards north off the footpath.  It seems to be just over the boundary line of Middleton Moor and onto the Beamsley Moor side (not that you give a shit when you’re up here ambling about – but the cartographers like to get things right I s’ppose!).

Archaeology & History

…and from another angle
Sketch of the design

Near the very top of the moor this one — this is a small carving that I rediscovered in March 2005, much of it covered in peat and heather.  It’s very similar to some of the central designs found on the Baildon Moor cup-and-ring carvings, with four cup-markings (3 are deep) in a slight arc to the southern edge of this small, squared stone, very much like carvings 126 and 130 in the Boughey & Vickerman (2003) survey.  However, unlike the Baildon Moor examples, no burials seem to accompany this carving—although the surrounding heather may be hiding other archaeological remains.

References:

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

© 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


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 


Murlaganmore, Killin, Perthshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 5402 3455

Also Known as:

  1. Morlagganmore

Getting Here

Murlaganmore02
Murlaganmore stone & setting

From Killin, take the Glen Lochay Road past the Moirlanich Longhouse, but keep on for another mile, and take the track on the left up to Murlaganmore cottages.  As the track turns right of the tree-line, cross the field (left) up towards the open gate as if you’re going to the Murlaganmore 2 carving, where you’ll see this large flattish rock in the grasses about 100 yards before it.

Archaeology & History

When we visited this old boulder last week, we had the misfortune of grey days and dark clouds throwing their faded light across this cup-marked rock, not really letting us see with any clarity the many cups which pepper (mainly) the edges of the rock.  But the cups are faded anyway, so accounts tell, and the 15 which we counted were same 15 recorded about 100 years ago in C.G. Cash’s (1912) survey.  There, he described this old stone as,

“about 200 yards south of the house, in the middle of the uppermost pasture. It is a large block of quartz schist stuck thick with garnets, and bearing fifteen cup-marks, only one of which — 3 inch in diameter and 1 inch deep — is really well defined, and several of which are faint.”

Murlaganmore03
Faint cups barely visible
Murlaganmore01
C.G. Cash’s early drawing

But despite the grey day (She was absolutely teeming with rain half of the time!), I found the setting here absolutely gorgeous, with the many shades of old trees and the clear blood of pure waters falling through the landscape.  And, without doubt, there are other carved stones nearby that have yet to capture the attention of surveyors.  You can smell them!

References:

  1. Cash, C.G., ‘Archaeological Gleanings from Killin,’ in PSAS 46, 1911-12.
  2. Royal Commission on Ancient & Historical Monuments, Scotland, The Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Stirling District, RCAHMS: Edinburgh 1979.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian