Tag: cup-markings

King’s Park, Stirling, Stirlingshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NS 7837 9299

Also known as:

  1. CEN 12 (R.W.B. Morris survey, 1981)

Getting Here

King's Park cup-and-ring, Stirling
King’s Park cup-and-ring, Stirling

Not too hard to find really.  On the far western edge of the King’s Park golf course, head for the highest point where the small cliffs drop down.  From here, walk down the footpath on the slight slope south, just below where the small copse of trees are, and you’ll see the singular small flat stone in the grasses near the footpath you’re walking along.  If you can’t find it – look around!

Archaeology & History

A little-known but fascinating isolated carving, first described by David Morris at the sixth meeting of the Stirling Natural History and Archaeological Society in 1901.  It is found on the western edge of the town, above the rocky edges not far from the pond of St. Thomas’ Well on the far edge of the golf course.  Morris’ finding was written up in their fine journal, where he wrote:

“In the King’s Park, about 50 yards east of the cliff where a seat overlooks the Douglas Terrace sand quarry, there is a smooth surface of rock showing through the turf, measuring two-and-half feet by one-and-half feet… On it is a cup-shaped hollow, outside the rim of which is a well-marked hollowed ring, beyond which is another faintly marked, concentric circular groove.  The cup-mark measures one-and-a-half inches across; the inner rim of the first circle is 4 inches, and the outer rim is 6 inches in diameter.  The outer circle, if complete, would be 9 inches in diameter.  The depth of the central hollow is half-an-inch, and of the inner groove fully one-quarter of an inch.  The markings are plainly artificial…”

King's Park CR - central design, with finger pointing to northernmost cup!
King’s Park CR – central design, pointing to northernmost cup

In good sunlight, it is obvious that the carving is a fine example of a double-ringed cup-and-ring carving – though the outer ring may not be complete.  The Scottish Royal Commission lads told that “this rock outcrop bears three cup marks” – one of which has the rings surrounding it.  In the first photo here, the southernmost cup-marking is highlighted in the centre of the two shells which were on the rock when we arrived.

However, there’s definitely more to this carving than previous investigations have outlined.  It seems that the northernmost cup-mark has a ring and a possible outer-ring.  There is also a distinctive linear carving, which at first seems like a primitive triangle, just below the southernmost cup – as we’ve tried illustrating here in the photo which Mikki Potts took.  It’s faint, but once you see it, it’s obvious that it’s there.  Other faint lines of similar nature also seem apparent near the northernmost cup-marking, but we will have to wait for rubbings and further visits in better light to ascertain the full image on this rock.  Well worth checking out if you like your rock art! (can any of you Scottish rock-art fanatics have a closer look at this? – take a rubbing of it and see what other aspects are on this design)

Faint linear carvings on southern end of the rock
Faint linear carvings on southern end of the rock

One other thing which seemed apparent when we were here: this site has all the geomantic hallmarks of accompanying a burial at some time in the ancient past.  Its isolation here is unusual and the carving is only 50 yards from the highest point hereabouts, where you have 360-degree views all round, typifying the position of many prehistoric tombs.*  Does anyone know about such features, or have records of any field-name surveys taken, which might confirm or deny this thought?  Twouldst be good to know!

References:

  1. Feachem, Richard, Prehistoric Scotland, Batsford: London 1963.
  2. Morris, David B., “Cup and Ring Marked Rock Surface in King’s Park,” in Stirling Natural History & Archaeology Society Transactions, 1900-1901.
  3. Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Southern Scotland, BAR 86, Oxford 1981.
  4. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Stirlingshire – 2 volumes, HMSO: Edinburgh 1963.
  5. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Stirling District, Central Region, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1979.

* Since writing the above, thanks the correspondence of Paddybhoy, we’ve learned that there definitely were prehistoric tombs close by; one being just at the bottom of the ridge below the carving, on Douglas Terrace.  Records describe several other prehistoric tombs nearby at Birkhill House, the Birkhill Sandpit and Coneypark Nursery.  However, I still think it most probable that there were other tombs and more rock art, probably along the edges of King Park, aswell as the Cambusbarron plain.  These need locating.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Hope Farm, Baildon, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone (lost):  OS Grid Reference – SE 142 396

Archaeology & History

Listed in Boughey & Vickerman’s (2003) survey as ‘stone 186,’ I first came across a reference to this carving when I was young, in a short article by Sidney Jackson (1964) in his Cartwright Hall archaeology journal.  A letter was sent to Mr Jackson in 1963 by a Mr Bernard Stubbs of Baildon, who wrote:

“This morning I visited Hope Farm, Baildon, where Mr Jim Bell, the farmer, told me of a cup-and-ring boulder which he had discovered while digging a hole to bury a sheep, in the polt of land at the rear of the farmhouse… He stated that the hole was covered with cup-and-ring markings.  Unfortunately, the hole has been filled and concreted over.”

And no one has seen it since then!  Damn!  Recently we discovered a cup-marked stone carved on a now-upright stone in old walling in one of the fields immediately west of the farm, but it’s obviously a different one from that described in Mr Stubbs’ letter.  There are several other carvings in this region that are not in the official records, but this particular ‘lost’ stone remains lost for the time being!

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.
  2. Jackson, Sidney, ‘New Cup-and-Ring Boulder,’ in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 9:1, 1964.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Hirst Woods, Saltaire, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone (destroyed?):  OS Grid Reference – SE 129 379

Archaeology & History

Over the years, many of us have looked for this site but without any success.  If it hasn’t actually been destroyed, it could be in someone’s garden wall, probably without them even knowing about it.  Indeed, even the grid reference given here is only an approximation (mine differs from the one cited by Boughey & Vickerman, who put the carving closer to SE 126 381) and the stone could have been a few hundred yards either side of here.  The main description of it comes from a letter written by a Mr T.P. Noble in 1964, which was cited in Sidney Jackson’s article ‘Hirst Wood Cup-and-Ring Boulder,’ in Bradford’s Cartwright Hall archaeology journal, where Mr Noble wrote:

“Mr Cooper, who built these houses (Hirst Wood housing estate) about 1935, once told me that there was a perfect example of a cup-and-ring stone here, but later, when he came to search for it, he couldn’t find it.  It appears it must have been removed and possibly broken-up when the foundations of the houses were excavated.”

Of course, as we don’t know the exact whereabouts of the carving, nor have we been left with an illustration of the stone, it’s difficult to say whether the description given by the great archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler in 1958, is referring to the same carving.  Wheeler told us that one day in his childhood when he was out walking with his father, R.M. Wheeler, they came across a seemingly unknown prehistoric carving, saying,

“On one memorable day in the woods beyond Saltaire, we found an unrecorded cup-marked stone (later, I believe, recorded by my father in a British Association Handbook)” – that work being the Handbook to Bradford and Neighbourhood (1900), edited by R.M. Wheeler.

Naathen…if there are any people from the Hirst Wood area reading this and who might know of an old carved rock stuck in some old garden walls nearby, let us know.  You’ll be credited as the person who re-discovered this long lost carving – and we can get the story in the local newspaper.

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.
  2. Jackson, Sidney, ‘Hirst Wood Cup-and-Ring Boulder,’ in the Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 9:2, February 1964.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Big Rock, Fenny Shaw, Bingley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 11203 43517

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.95 (Hedges)
  2. Carving no.108 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

Big Stone Carving - looking SW
Big Rock Carving – looking SW

The best and easist way to get here is to drive west past Dick Hudson’s pub along the moor road for about a mile till you reach the left turn of Heights Lane. Stop here! (if you’re now going downhill to East Morton, you’ve gone past it) On the opposite side of the road is a gate and a footpath onto the moor at the spot called Fenny Shaw Low Well (small copse of woods adjacent to your right). Walk a quarter-mile up the path, bearing left where the path diverges (ignoring the ‘Private’ sign) and head for the derelict building. Less than 100 yards before it, notice the large boulder to your right, on the slope – that’s it!

Archaeology & History

Old inaccurate drawing of the cups, c.1982
Old inaccurate drawing, c.1982

I first came across this on one of my countless ambles on these moors as a teenager.  It was a cold, windy day as I recall – hence the reason for my sketch of the stone being a bit vague!  The bit of paper on which I drew it, was included in one of my unpublished hand-written booklets.  A few years later an image of the carving appeared in Mr Hedge’s (1986) fine collection, in much better detail than my scratty little pic!

Some of the cups highlighted
Some cup-marks highlighted

It’s a ‘big rock’ and stands out on the slope here.  There’s at least one complete cup-and-ring which is visible on the northern edge of the rock and there are between 17 and 30 other cups scattered across its surface, which has been greatly eroded by our timely forces of wind, rain, ice and snow.

Hedges’ 1986 sketch

In ambling around looking at the other stones in the vicinity, along with finding the small Littlestone cup-marked rock further up the slope, we also found, just below the faded old Big Stone, another quite large rock upon which, quite recently, someone has decided to etch four complete cup-and-ring symbols.  These appear to have been done either to,

i) assess degrees and speed of erosion on rock carvings;

or,

ii) pure artistry.

Whichever it may be (and there’s been various cries of “vandalism” when such carvings have been etched by some folk on otherwise virgin rock over the years), let it be known that the Big Stone’s partner was etched c.2008-9.  Does anyone out there know who did this ‘new’ carving?

References:

  1. Boughey, K.J.S. & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Leeds 2003.
  2. Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks of Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Grey Stone, Harewood, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 3148 4307

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.399 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

Various ways to get here, but I suppose the easist is by walking along the path just above the woods from the main A61 road, where there’s the junction turn-off to Wike.  You have to walk perhaps 1000 yards until eventually, a couple of hundred yards up the slope to your left (south) you’ll see the boulder stuck in the field.  You’re there!

Archaeology & History

The Grey Stone, Harewood
The Grey Stone, Harewood

Described first by Cowling & Hartley in 1960, this multiple-ringed carving gives the distinct impression that it aint quite as old as our more traditional cup-and-rings on the moors west and north of here – but I s’ppose we’ll never know for sure.  There isn’t a central cup to this concentric-ringed carving, which is quite unusual, and which is why I get the impression that it’s from a later archaeological period.  However, saying that, there are several other faint cup-markings on the southwest and east-faces of the boulder (which I forgot to photograph when I was there – idiot that I am!).  Boughey and Vickerman (2003) illustrate as many as 18 other cup-marks on the rock surface – which they list as stone 399 in their survey.

Although there seems to be no folklore attached to this isolated carving, rock-art authority Graeme Chappell noted how “the midwinter full moon set behind Almscliffe Crags at its extreme northerly setting point in Bronze Age times” from this Grey Stone.

The archaeologist S.A. Moorhouse (1981) also pointed out how some of the many Grey Stones (which usually means ‘a boundary stone’, sometimes very ancient ones) found in northern England, derive their name from the old word har, which “can also mean ‘grey, hoar,’ used to describe natural boulders, possibly with cup-and-ring markings” – just as we have here!

References:

  1. Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Milverton 2001.
  2. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.
  3. Cowling, E.T. & Hartley, C.E., ‘A Ring-Marked Rock: The Grey Stone,’ in YAJ 1960.
  4. Moorhouse, S.A., ‘Boundaries,’ in Faull & Moorhouse’s West Yorkshire: An Archaeological Survey, volume 2, 1981.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Map Stone, Ilkley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 12961 46396

Also known as:

  1. Carving No.137 (Hedges)
  2. Carving No.295 (Boughey & Vickerman)
  3. Planet Stone
  4. The Planets Rock

Getting Here

Map Stone, looking east
Map Stone, looking east

Best visited in winter and spring – thereafter the vegetation can hide it a little – but even then, it’s not too hard to find.  Start from the Cow & Calf Hotel and walk across the road onto the moor, and head over as if you’re gonna walk above the Cow & Calf Rocks, onto the moorland proper.  When you’ve gone a few hundred yards, walk up the slope (there are several footpaths – you can take your choice).  Once on the ridge on top of the moor proper, you’ll see the Haystack Rock: it’s on the same ridge, right near where the moor drops down the slope about 250 yards west of here, just about next to the footpath that runs along the edge.  Look around!

Archaeology & History

Unlike some folk who’ve seen this old stone, I find this carving superb.  Its one of my favourites up here!  Its alternative name – the Planet Stone – perhaps lends you to expect something more, but this is down to the astronomer who thought this was some type of heavenly image (which is most unlikely).  I prefer to call it the ‘Map Stone’ because the correlates this carving has with indigenous aboriginal cup-and-rings is impressive and — to Aborigines anyway — would have all the hallmarks of a map.  But not a ‘map’ in the traditional sense of modern humans.  The incidence of cups and rings linked by curvaceous lines, typifies routes between water-holes or settlement spots made by ancestral beings — which is just what we find at this carving here.  These ancestral beings need to be seen in a quite mythic sense: they may be creation deities (giants, gods, etc), animal spirits, the routes of shaman spirits, or other expressions of homo-religiosus.

Map Stone (note the carved line along the very edge of the rock)
…and again from another angle

In the Map Stone here, we see that the very edge of the rock (fig.2 & 3) is ‘encircled’, perhaps (and I say perhaps) symbolic of the edge of the world.  The lines and rings upon the top of the rock may symbolize journeys to and from important places.  Another impression I get of this carving, with the “map” idea, is that the large pecked diamond-shaped ‘cup’ near the middle of the carving is a large body of water around which the archaic routeways passed.  The next time anyone visits this stone, have a look at it with this idea in mind.  Its simple, straightforward and makes sense (mind you – that doesn’t mean to say it’s right!).

The first account I’ve found of this comes from the pen of J. Romilly Allen (1882), where this stone “measuring 5ft 3in by 5ft, and 1ft 9in high” was described thus:

“On its upper surface, which is nearly horizontal, are carved thirteen cups, varying in diameter from 2 to 2½ in, eleven of which are surrounded by rings.  There is also an elaborate arrangement of connecting grooves.”

Although we can only work our nine cup-and-rings here today, Mr Allen seemed suitably impressed with this old carving. Stan Beckensall (1999) seemed to have a good feel of this design too, describing it thus:

“Two thirds of the surface of this earthfast sandstone have been used in a design that partly encloses the marked part of the rock with long curvilinear grooves along its edge, and the inner grooves link single rings around cups.  The effect is one of inter-connection and fluidity.”

The Map, or Planets Stone (after Hedges 1986)
Hedges 1986 sketch

The Map Stone was also looked at to examine the potential for Alexander Thom’s proposal of a megalithic inch: a unit of measure speculated to have been used in neolithic and Bronze Age times for the carving of cup-and-ring stones.  Using nine other carvings on these moor as samples, Alan Davies (1983, 1988) explored this hypothesis and gave the idea his approval.  However the selectivity of his data, not only in the carvings chosen, throws considerable doubt on the idea.  Unfortunately the idea doesn’t hold water.  The ‘geometry’ in the size of cup-and-rings relates more to the biometrics of the human hand and not early scientific geometry, sadly….

References:

  1. Allen, J.R., ‘Prehistoric Rock Sculptures of Ilkley,’ in Journal British Arch. Assoc., 35, 1879.
  2. Allen, J.R., ‘Notice of Sculptured Rocks near Ilkley, with some Remarks on Rocking Stones,’ in Journal British Arch. Assoc., 38, 1882.
  3. Allen, J.R., ‘Cup and Ring Sculptures on Ilkley Moor,’ in Reliquary Illus. Archaeology, 2, 1896.
  4. Beckensall, Stan, British Prehistoric Rock Art, Tempus: Stroud 1999.
  5. Boughey, K.J.S. & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Exeter 2003.
  6. Collyer, Robert & Turner, J.H., Ilkley: Ancient and Modern, William Walker: Otley 1885.
  7. Cowling, E.T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
  8. Davis, Alan, ‘The Metrology of Cup & Ring Carvings near Ilkley in Yorkshire,’ Science Journal 25, 1983.
  9. Davies, Alan, ‘The Metrology of Cup and Ring Carvings,’ in Ruggles, C., Records in Stone, Cambridge 1988.
  10. Hedges, John, The Carved Rocks on Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
Alan Davies' image of the carving - with carved 'lake' near centre
Alan Davies’ image of the carving – with carved ‘lake’ near centre

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Wycoller Bridge, Trawden, Lancashire

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Cup-Marked Stones:  OS Grid Reference – SD 931 393

Getting Here

Easy enough to find once you’ve actually got to Wycoller.  By car, the only real way to get here is from Colne, through the village of Winewall, and along the Wycoller road, which runs to a dead end.  Once here, the old packhorse bridge with these cup-marks on it can’t be missed!

Archaeology & History

Wycoller Bridge's cup-marked stones (after Jackson, 1962)
Wycoller Bridge’s cup-marked stones (after Jackson, 1962)

A weird one this!  On the famous packhorse bridge close to the old hall, four of the stones have cup-markings etched onto them.  It seems that at least three of the carvings are archaic; with cups on one of the stones being somewhat deep and may actually be medieval.  But we simply don’t know….  A short article describing them was in the Bradford Cartwright Hall Archaeology Bulletin (1962) where they were equally as puzzled about them.  In 1979, J.A. Heginbottom described them in his survey on the prehistoric rock-art of upper Calderdale.  It’s possible that the stones on which the cups were carved might have been taken from a prehistoric tomb on the edge of the moor further up the valley from here.

Folklore

Just next to this bridge is another, much older one, known locally as the Clapper or Druid’s Bridge which perhaps has some bearing on the curious cup-markings.  Legend tells that this older construction was so called “because legend has it that it led to an amphitheatre where the druids held human sacrifices” – and the field just up from here (to the southwest) was known as the Dripping Stone Field.  Hmmmmm…..

References:

  1. Bentley, John, Portrait of Wycoller, Nelson Local History Society 1975.
  2. Heginbottom, J.A., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Upper Calderdale, unpublished report: 1979.
  3. Jackson, Sidney, ‘Cup-Marked Stones at Wycoller,’ in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, October 1962.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Woman Stone, Askwith Moor, North Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 17103 50541

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.520 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

Takes a bit of finding this – but if you like your rock art, it’s worth the search!  You can follow directions for the getting to the Man Stone then, when you reach it, look to the near horizon to the east.  Get to the bottom of the sloping hillside where a large rounded boulder sits and walk up the slope about 10 yards.  Look around here cos you’re very close.

Woman Stone carving
Carving highlighted in chalk

Alternatively, from the Askwith Moor Road, follow the path to the triangulation pillar on Shooting House Hill.  Keep going for another 100 yards and check a small path to your left (south).  Follow this down until you get to the top of the slope.  Go to the bottom of the slope and look around!

This carving is best checked out in winter and early spring: if you go here in summer & autumn there’s bracken covering the entire site & you’ll never find it!

Archaeology & History

Drawing by Inmaculada Ibanez-Sanchez

This stone was first discovered by Graeme Chappell and I during one of our many ambling explorations here in the early 1990s and was first mentioned in my Old Stones of Elmet (pp.149-152).  Marija Gimbutas would have loved this seemingly matriarchal-looking cup-and-ring carving, suggestive of many Mother Goddess images she found across Europe – hence its title!

Woman Stone design (after Boughey & Vickerman)
Woman Stone design (after Boughey & Vickerman)

I don’t think that the old-school archaeological types would lower themselves to say such a thing, but as I aint one of them I’m quite confident in saying that this carving does seem to be a pictorial representation of a female figure: one of the earliest of its kind in the British Isles? (check its nearby male compatriot, the Man Stone – a distinctly human figure and one of the earliest of its kind in the British Isles)  Very close by we are left with old place-name remnants pointing directly at the presence of pre-christian goddess remains in the mythic landscape – an issue I’ll expand on in the near future.

In the survey by more recent rock art students Boughey & Vickerman (2003), their illustration of the carving makes it look even more like an early female figure! (though I hear they don’t like people giving the carvings names – unless, of course, one of them lot names it…)

References:

  1. Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Milverton 2001.
  2. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.
  3. Gimbutas, Marija, The Language of the Goddess, Harper-Collins: San Francisco 1989.
  4. Gimbutas, Marija, The Civilization of the Goddess: The World of Old Europe, Harper-Collins: San Franciscoo 1991.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


William Walker Stone, Keighley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SD 99904 40659 

Getting Here

William Walker's Cup-and-Ring
William Walker’s Cup-and-Ring

You need to get to the eastern edge of Keighley Moor by taking the country road northwest out of Oakworth (one of two roads) and head to the end of Newsholme Dean Valley at Slippery Ford.  You can park up at Slippery Ford at Morkin Bridge, then walk up the road for 250 yards, turning sharp left up the dirt-track.  Walk along its wibbly route for another 250 yards and watch out for the large boulder in one of the fields on the left.  That’s it!

Archaeology & History

Sketching the design

I came across this previously unrecorded carving in August 2006 after returning from an amble over the moors in the pouring rain and was fortunate to be able to make out the faint design, for, as with most cup-and-ring carvings, depending on the daylight conditions determines whether the carving is visible or not.  Although some of the cup-marks on here are quite distinct, several are very faded and — as usual! — there are a number of dubious ones to work out!

Central design of cups & ring
Main design of cups & ring

The carving gets its name due to the rock having a carved epitaph for an old local farmer — called William Walker — on its eastern face.  There are also the letters “I.W.” carved on its sloping upper face, which looks typical of boundary mark notation, though this stone aint been on any boundary for at least 160 years (I aint checked earlier records).  But much older on top of the rock we find perhaps as many as 20 cup-markings, which at first I first thought might be natural, but this was suddenly halted when I noticed in the bad light a large circle with several cups along it, inside of which were two other cups.  On the southern edge of the rock it seems there may be another 3 or 4 cup-marks, one with a line running down (possibly natural).  I took a couple of pictures when I first found it but they weren’t too well-defined.  The ones here are a little better.

Artist's impression - by Angela Hainsworth
Artist’s impression by Angela Hainsworth
Close-up of ring, cups & lines

The main feature here is obviously the curious ‘ring’ above a small eroded basin, consisting of several cups, with two in the centre.  On closer examination it appears that the ‘ring’ is in fact an unfinished circle with the two central cups having lines running from them to the incomplete ring, leaving a gap or opening at the bottom.  The lack of other cup-and-ring carvings in the vicinity (apart from the simple Cob Stone, 750 yards away below Grey Stones Hill) is an oddity.  A few more ventures onto the local hills are definitely required to see if anything else can be found!

Acknowledgements:  With thanks to Angela Hainsworth for her assistance and sketch of the design.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Warley Edge, Halifax, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone (lost):  OS Grid Reference – SE 062 253

Archaeology & History

Warley Edge Cup-and-ring stone

A rare find in Calderdale, as it’s only one of a very small number of full cup-and-ring designs — though its exact whereabouts remains elusive.  From Heginbottom’s (1979) OS-reference, it’s close to a pretty built-up area, so may be destroyed.

He described it as a “large block with cup and ring markings, built into a dry stone wall,” 900ft above sea level. So where eactly is it…?

References:

  1. Heginbottom, J.A., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Upper Calderdale and the Surrounding Area, YAS: Leeds 1979.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian