Coronation Cairn carving (270), Ilkley Moor, West Yorkshire

Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 1226 4636

Getting Here

Walk up from Ilkley to the White Wells and keep following the footpath upwards, up the steps and onto the moor itself.  Once you’ve got to the top of the steps above the rocky valley, look straight up the slope in front of you and walk directly up the hill.  As you near the top, there’s a large cairn sat on the brow of the hill (known as the Coronation Cairn).  This ‘ere carving is just a few yards below it.

Archaeology & History

Very little has been written of this albeit innocuous carving — if indeed it is a carving!  Found on the large (though overgrown) flat stone just a few yards below the Victorian cairn, all that we appear to have here is a large cup-marking with a small arc pecked around its southern side and a distinct straight line running outwards from the cup (though the line doesn’t actually touch the cup-mark and does give the distinct impression of being pretty recent).  A sort of “cup-and-half-ring” with extended line is perhaps the best description!

Close-up of cup & lines
Carved Stone 270

It was first reported by some English Heritage archaeologist — which, as is generally acknowledged, isn’t necessarily a good pointer for authenticity when it comes to identifying prehistoric rock art.* But it’s certainly got a bit more about it than some “carvings” they’ve reported in the past!  Boughey & Vickerman (2003) made the following notes of this stone:

“”Low, flat gritstone rock quarried away on E side, fairly smooth but uneven.  One large cup and deep groove slightly curving round edge of cup.”

Which is about right.  I don’t really think too many of you will be into this unless you’re a real rock-art fanatic!

References:

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

* A number of cup-marked stones identified by English Heritage archaeologists have transpired to be nothing more than natural erosion. 

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Great Wood Laithe (019), Skipton, North Yorkshire

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SD 99620 50551

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.3 (Hedges)
  2. Carving no.19 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

Cowling’s 1964 drawing

From Skipton centre get to the Horse Close estate on the southern side of the town and look up to the fields on the sloping hill above it with the small woods above ’em.  Head up towards the trees, but before you get there go into the fields on your right, and in one of them you’ll see what looks like a pile of rocks near the middle.  Head for it!

Alternatively, follow the directions to reach the Horse Close Hill enclosure, then walk down into the field on its western edge.  You can’t really miss it!

Archaeology & History

This carving first saw the light of pen-and-paper in the early 1960s, soon after the Yorkshire antiquarian Eric T. Cowling (he of Rombald’s Way fame) was led to the site by his wandering nose and the aid of local people.  He sent a letter to the editor of the Bradford archaeology group at the time (a certain Mr Sidney Jackson), which told:

“South-west of the wood which gives its name to the Great Wood Laithe at the western end of Rombalds Moor and overlooking Skipton from the east, is a cup-marked boulder: NGR – SD 99625055.  In the middle of the field alongside the wood is an outcrop of rock which has been almost levelled with the adjacent field surface by the dumping of boulders from the surrounding ploughlands.

“The top of the outcrop rises to a dome-shaped projection which bears simple cup-markings.  These average two in diameter and total 17 in number.  The whole surface of the stone is weathered, and suitable light may reveal more details.”

And, faded though it is, in better lighting conditions it seems there may be more than twenty cup-marks on the rock.  Certainly this is what the surveys of Hedges (1986) and Boughey & Vickerman (2003) concluded.  There are other carvings close by and, on the hillside immediately above you, the denuded remains of a very impressive prehistoric settlement site known as Horse Close Hill.  Well worth having a look at!

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Leeds 2003.
  2. Cowling, E.T., “Cup-and Ring Boulders,” in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 9:5, May 1964.
  3. Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
  4. Ramm, H.G., “Yorkshire Archaeological Register, 1964,” in Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, volume 41 (part 163), 1965.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian 


Butt Well, Stirling, Stirlingshire

Healing Well:  OS Grid Reference – NS 7894 9389

Also Known as:

  1. Spout Well

Getting Here

Butt Well in 1898
Butt Well in 1898

Said by John Allan (1907) to be “at the base of the Brandy Hill, about 210 yards west from the parish church,” to get to it from the town centre Stirling Arcade, go across and along the Corn Exchange Road and as it goes down the slope, take the path that leads into the trees on your right-hand side.  Follow this path along to the bottom of the woods.  Once on the level at the bottom, walk on the path in the direction of Stirling Castle and eventually you’ll reach the fancy walling with the dried-up well right in front of you!

Archaeology & History

This much-neglected site got its name from there being a number of archery shooting targets, or butts, which used to be erected in the fields immediately below this once popular drinking spot.  Although the Stirling historian J.S. Fleming (1898) could find no definitive records of the place as a holy or healing well, he told how,

“The copious spring arising in the centre of the rock on which Stirling Town and Castle are built, must have been extensively used during the Royal occupation of the Castle for watering the horses engaged in hunting in the Park…and it must also have been the source from whence the canal or ornamental waters and fountains in the ancient pleasure-grounds of the King’s Knot were supplied, the fall being amply sufficient  for the rise to a considerable height of the latter… The Well had at one time a railing surroundings its then open trough, the marks of the lead used in grouting the rails remaining visible until the last alteration.”

The waters emerging in the field below
The Butt Well

Early accounts of the Butt Well are few and far between.  Ronald James (1899) found it to have been known in earlier centuries as the Spout Well in 1582, but additional descriptions of the place are scant.  The well is not included in the surveys of either MacKinlay (1893) nor the Morris’ (1981), though John Allan (1907) thinks that this site was a “congenial retreat” where “the bard of the chief” would gain insight.  The remains of walling behind the old well he thought may have been the ancient remains of an old hermitage of sorts, but there’s little evidence to prove this.   Today, although dried-up, the site appears much it as did when Fleming described it:

“The Well has had the old wall — formed of granite boulders — rebuilt and cemented, and a rustic ornamental freestone front put on where the spout is inserted, but its stone seat for invalids and other surroundings remains as they were forty years ago.  The Well formed the termination of the early morning walk of the town’s folk for a draught of its cold water, and was at a late period used by the wives and washerwomen of Stirling for washing their clothes, which were then bleached on the green sward lying below the Well, the tenant of the park making a charge according to the extent of the washing.”

If you go behind the walling here you’ll notice a small flow of water which emerges into the field below.  The waters from here, although only a trickle, are still cold, fine and refreshing.

References:

  1. Allan, John, The Days of the Monasteries and Latter Days of Stirling, Stirling 1907.
  2. Fleming, J.S., Old Nooks of Stirling, Delineated and Described, Munro & Jamieson: Stirling 1898.
  3. Ronald, James, Landmarks of Old Stirling, Eneas MacKay: Stirling 1899.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian 


Death’s Head Carving (577), Askwith Moor, North Yorkshire

Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 17795 51235

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.577

Getting Here

Follow the directions to find the Tree of Life Stone, then follow the main footpath uphill from it.  Once on the level, look out for a couple of large rocks abaat 100 yards to your left.  Check ’em out, cos it’s on one of ’em!

Archaeology & History

This is another decent carving living on these prolific moors.  Found near the end of a lengthy line of prehistoric walling that runs east-west over this part of the moor, the general Rorsharch-response to this carving is of some sorta skull or screaming face.  My impression of it the other day was, “it looks like a pig!”

Although mentioned by numerous writers, the first description of it was in Eric Cowling’s (1937) essay on the cup-and-ring stones north of Otley, saying:

“On an isolated table stone, situated at the upper end of the shallow valley which drains Snowden Carr, the writer found a marking having a strangely skull-like appearance, but which is really a group of three large cups which are linked by inter-turning curved grooves.”

Close-up of main design
The Death’s Head Rock

He then strives to make links between this carving and the design on the Swastika Stone above Ilkley — which in some way is a little similar, i.e., as a three-armed triskele swastika; but the notion is perhaps as accurate as saying it represents a cloud, or a tree, or bird-flight, or any number of other natural phenomena.  Beckensall’s (1999) brief note of the stone — despite getting his grid-ref off by a few hundred yards — described it as “four cups linked and enclosed by grooves, unconvincingly suggesting a skull to some people.”  With Boughey & Vickerman (2003) saying:

“Fairly large, upstanding rock with surface sloping down to N. Figure of four cups linked by and enclosed by grooves: entire pattern resembles a skull, hence the name ‘Death’s Head Rock.'”

References:

  1. Beckensall, Stan, British Prehistoric Rock Art, Tempus: Stroud 1999.
  2. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
  3. Cowling, Eric T., “Cup and Ring Markings to the North of Otley,” in Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, part 131, 33:3, 1937.
  4. Cowling, Eric T., Rombald’s Way: A Prehistory of Mid-Wharfedale, William Walker: Otley 1946.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Sheriffmuir Carving, Dunblane, Stirlingshire

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 83074 02143

Getting Here

From Dunblane, head up the Glen Road for nearly a mile, turning left up the Sheriffmuir Road and all the wya on till you reach the pub near the T-junction another couple of miles on.  OK – get thru the gate and onto the moor, roughly in a straight line with the pub behind you for about 400 yards.  You’re damn close! (if you find the nice standing stone known as the Wallace Stone, walk  250 yards southwest from here).

Archaeology & History

Almost nothing has been written of this cup-marked stone, found at the southern end of what’s alleged to be an authentic megalithic stone row alignment, running northeast to southwest — although this alignment isn’t included in either Aubrey Burl’s (1993) or Alexander Thom’s (1990) textbooks dealing with such matters.

Cup-marks highlighted in ice!
Cup-marked rock with the Wallace Stone in the distance

When we came here last winter in temperatures of around -6°C (one helluva good day!), curiously only this and the other stones along this “stone row” were actually uncovered on the moorland.  Quite bizarre to be honest!  Many of the other rocks scattering this small moorland edge were covered in several feet of snow.  We were lucky I s’ppose…though I’ve gotta get back up here again shortly and see the site in summertime (midges up mi crotch, cleggs-a-biting – oh such joy!) cos I can’t believe this is the only cup-marked stone hereby.

The rock itself is more than seven-feet long and has at least twenty archetypal cups carved into its slightly-slanting face — although when we visited the stone, several of these were difficult to see and, as the images show, even more difficult to photograph (of the 20 I took of this stone alone, only one was of any value in highlight the cups) .  The stone gave the impression that it may have stood upright in the not-too-distant past — which would of course give the notion of this as part of megalithic avenue a considerably more potent status.

Some dood alleged that this potential stone row, with this cup-marked stone at its southwestern end, marked an astronomical alignment — but for the life of me I can’t remember who it was! (it’s my age creeping up on me at last!)

References:

  1. Burl, Aubrey, From Carnac to Callanish: The Prehistoric Stone Rows and Avenues of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, Yale University Press 1993.
  2. Heggie, Douglas C., Megalithic science: ancient mathematics and astronomy in north-west Europe, Thames & Hudson: London 1981.
  3. Thom, A., Thom, A.S. & Burl, Aubrey, Stone Rows and Standing Stones – 2 volumes, B.A.R.: Oxford 1990.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Riverbank Cup-Marking, Askwith, North Yorkshire

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 1659 4744

Getting Here

Just over the county boundary on the north side of the Wharfe’s riverbank, the easiest way to find this is from the village of Burley-in-Wharfedale, walking out as if heading towards Ilkley (west) and, just 100 yards or so before reaching the A65(T) road, walk down the footpath that takes you down to the River Wharfe.  Go over the large stepping-stones and, once on the other side, walk down the edge of the riverbank for 10 yards, up the first ridge and there, just below the grass where the edge of the land is coming away, you’ll find this small cup-marking.

Archaeology & History

First discovered t’other day, on Friday, 28 May, 2010, when we were starting on another wander onto the hills.  We’d only just crossed the large stepping-stones over the River Wharfe just outside Burley and heading up to Askwith, when Michala Potts stopped, peered and said summat along the lines of, “Errr….look at this!”

Riverbank Cup-Marking
Close-up of cup-mark

My initial thought was it was gonna be some naturally eroded water-worn stone — but it didn’t seem that way.  Peering out from the edge of the ground n the company of many other small stones and gravel, which was slowly coming away just yards above the edge of the river, a rounded cup-marked stone with just a single cup-mark stood out like a sore thumb!  It was covered in dusty earth and looked a quite decent example; but once we’d cleared the dried earth away and wet the stone, the cup-marking was truly enhanced.  To those of you who have a thing about cup-markings and associations with rivers and streams, this one can be added to your statistics! (20 yards away the Askwith East Beck meets with the river)

Obviously added as part of the river embankment, the stone would obviously have been taken from a nearby source, but we’re unlikely to ever find out where.  It looks typical of cup-marked stones that were added to cairns, but no such site (that we know of) occurred close by.  We were gonna peel some of the embankment back and see if there was anything else here, but time and another ancient site that we’d arranged to see was calling us away, so we just got a few pictures and kept on our way…

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Pool Farm, Priddy, Somerset

Cup-and-Ring Stone / Tomb:  OS Grid Reference – ST 5375 5417

Getting Here

Dead easy this! (though a bittova cheat) Get to the Bristol City Museum and look inside.  This Google map should help those of you who don’t know Bristol too well.

Archaeology & History

Grinsell’s drawing of the carved slab (PPS 1957)

Found amidst a large cluster of other neolithic and Bronze Age remains—with the amazing line of the Priddy henges just a few hundred yards to the southeast—this is one helluva rare relic this thing: a carved stone, with seeming cup-marks and engraved “feet” no less, which was found when dug out of a prehistoric tomb way down South.  Obviously a buncha northern lads and lasses must’ve been on one helluva piss-up! (y’ never know…)  Although the tomb — a round barrow by all accounts — was well-known and excavated in 1930, the carving was somehow not noticed by the archaeologists when they dug here!  But it has to be said, at that period many archaeologists thought rock art to be insignificant and unworthy of study, so perhaps their ignorance stemmed from  the academic myopia of the time.

But at least they gave a reasonable description of the tomb itself.  It was due to be destroyed and the considerable mass of material from it was used for widening the nearby road!!!  Thankfully, for some reason, “the chamber or cist was left in situ” under the ground.  Leslie V. Grinsell (1957) takes up the tale:

“The barrow appeared to be about 100 feet in diameter and 3¾ feet high, but it had been spread and its height reduced by many ploughings. Excavation showed that the barrow, which was of the bowl type, was composed of fine mould throughout, and had never been enclosed by a ditch.  In the centre of the barrow, there was a stone chamber or cist, the external dimensions of which were 5½ feet long, 4½ feet wide, and 2½ feet high.  The floor, which was ‘crazy-paved’, was approximately on the ground-level.  The cist was placed with its long axis SE-NW.  The late Father Ethelbert Horne, who wrote the excavation report, stated that the south-eastern slab, which was inserted 6 inches deep into the floor, had the character of a ‘closing-slab’, and outside it were several packing stones.  There was a large cover slab of Dolomitic Conglomerate.  The small northwestern slab is of Carboniferous Limestone, and the south-eastern slab is of Liassic Chert, but the large south-western and north-eastern slabs are of sandstone derived from the vicinity.  The essential characteristics of this structure are therefore that is was abnormally large for a stone cist, had a strong suspicion of a ‘closing slab’ (implying some kind of entrance?) at the south-eastern end, and was above ground level, with its floor on that level.

“On the floor of this chamber or cist, at the foot of the approximate centre of the south-western slab, was a heap of burnt human bones, free from any admixture of charcoal.  As these bones had been broken small after being cremated, their determination was by no means easy.  Prof E. Fawcett…expressed the belief that they may have comprised the remains of an adult and a young person.”

But it was in 1956 that the carvings were noticed on the cist remains — by Mr Grinsell and his friend, C.S. Taylor.  At first they thought that some of the etchings were of human hands, but they later realised they were of human feet.  Grinsell wrote:

The Foot carvings: The feet shown are all single feet, no two forming a left-and-right pair of the same individual.  Nos. 1,2 and 3, in a row, are large, medium and small; no.4 is oblique in form; no.5 is on a slightly recessed portion of the slab; and no.6 represents the foot of a child between about 3 and 4 years old.  No.3 represents the foot of a child about 10-12 years of age.  Nos. 1,2,4 and 5 appear to represent the feet of adults.  No.7 is the symbol of uncertain meaning.  All these foot carvings show rounded heels and toes, in contrast to those on the Calderstones which are nearly all rectangular.  The toes are all splayed, and this carving is likely to be due partly to the nature of the stone and the tools with which they are carved, and partly to the fact that the feet represented are probably those of a people who did not wear shoes, or wore footwear that did not constrict the toes.

The Cup-marks: There are nine (possibly ten) cup-marks; their diameter ranges between 0.9 inches and 1.9 inches, and their depth between 0.1 inch and 0.3 inches… They are on the average about twice as deep as the foot-carvings.  The smallest cup-mark (no.17) is beside the smallest foot-carving; but there is no noticeable relationship between the other cup-marks and foot-carvings…”

Earliest known photo of the carving by R.A. Whiteford

An intriguing carved slab at the very least!  We can say with some certainty that this old tomb was of considerable importance to the people who built and lived around it in the centuries that followed (ancestral spirits and all that).  It may have been a tomb of an important tribal elder, shaman or queen — though we may never truly know.  But one thing which local archaeologists and antiquarians need to keep their eyes open for when opening any more burial sites in and around this region, are other examples of rock art, for the rule tends to be: where there’s one carving, others are close by!  So wherefore art the others…?

References:

  1. Coles, J., Gestsdottir, H. & Minnitt, S., “A Bronze Age Decorated Cist from Pool Farm, West Harptree: New Analyses,” in Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, 144, 2000.
  2. Grinsell, Leslie V., “A Decorated Cist-Slab from Mendip,” in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, volume 23, 1957.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Tree Of Life Stone, Snowden Carr, Askwith, North Yorkshire

Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 17978 51161

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.598 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

Tree of Life Stone (photo credit, Yorkshire Daz)

From Askwith village go up the Moor Lane and at the crossroads go straight across (Snowden Moor is to your left).  Go down and along Snowden Carr Road until the road levels out and, watch carefully, about 500 yards on from the crossroads on your left you’ll see a small crag of rocks in the fields above.  Stop and go through the gate walking up the field.  At the top is a gate: go thru this and turn right, up the footpath for 100 yards, keeping your eyes peeled!  You’re damn close!

Archaeology & History

The most well-known and one of the more decorative of all the carvings in and around the Snowden Moor region is the Tree of Life Stone.  In the 1930s, Eric Cowling first reported how, “this fine marking is the only one which appears to be known to the people of the district,” due in part to it being a site of local social activities (though nothing is said of this place in William Grainge’s [1895] survey).  Cowling (1937) described the carving thus:

close-up of main features
Eric Cowling’s sketch

“This stone lies alongside the bridle path which skirts the southwest corner of the enclosed moorland above the hamlet of Low Snowden.  A large flat rock surface at ground level has a number of cups joined together by a series of curved grooves, which in their turn are connected to a central straight groove.  Immediately above the design, a broad groove has been cut across a raised central area as though to isolate the markings from several scattered cups which are to be found on the remaining surface.”

The modern surveyors Boughey & Vickerman (2003) tell us that this highly ornate stone comprises of,

“about 25 cups, with a group at the highest…end and a few isolated, but most in complex design with enclosing grooves suggesting a tree in fruit: hence the name ‘Tree of Life Rock.'”

The Tree of Life Stone
Boughey & Vickerman’s sketch

The Coped Stone carving is just a few yards away and, on the slopes below here — as well as on the moor stretching above you — there is an excess of prehistoric remains: enclosures, hut circles, lengths of walling, cairns, other cup-and-ring stones — the vast majority of which has yet to be excavated in any formal sense (are any rich doods out there reading this who might wanna get things going…?).  It appears that both the Coped Stone and the Tree of Life carving may have been linked by some ancient walling that appears to run between them.

Another possible variant on the Tree of Life Stone has recently been uncovered on the outskirts of Ilkley; but on this newly-discovered example we find the central ‘trunk’ of the ‘tree’ is a natural crack that runs up the middle of the rock. Up the ‘trunk’ are several short branches with cup-marks on either side, not unlike apples on a tree.  Altogether there are at least 12 cups and one ring, with several curious lines, some of which seem geophysical in nature.  After several visits to the site, it’s obvious that the ‘tree’ design is more obvious and there are additional faint carved sections on the stone which weren’t visible when it was discovered in heavy rain and poor light.

Folklore

Tree of Life Stone (by James Elkington)

This is one of very few cup-and-ring stones with folklore attached.  Cowling (1937; 1946) reported it to be site of early morning Beltane (May 1) gatherings.  The title of the stone, the Tree of Life, was one he heard local people call this site, but “no reason is offered”, he said. About 100 yards below this we find a curious erectile, fertility image on the impressive carving 612, which (he says tenuously!) may (and that’s a dodgy “may”!) relate to the Beltane rites at the Tree of Life.

Tree of Life in situ

In more modern folklore, the old earth mysteries writer Guy Ragland Phillips (1976) suggested the Tree of Life Stone to be an important focal point along one helluva highly speculative ley line: running from the Irish Sea, across land and the Tree of Life stone, continuing way east until hitting the North Sea!  If this old ley did have any validity (it doesn’t!), the Tree of Life’s carved partners east and west of here — the Coped Stone and carving no.597 — would have also been on the same line.

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
  2. Cowling, Eric T., “Cup and Ring Markings to the North of Otley,” in Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, part 131, 33:3, 1937.
  3. Cowling, Eric T., Rombald’s Way: A Prehistory of Mid-Wharfedale, William Walker: Otley 1946.
  4. Phillips, Guy Ragland, Brigantia — A Mysteriography, RKP: London 1976.

Acknowledgements: Many thanks to James Elkington and to Yorkshire Daz for use of their photos.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian 


West Lane Rock, Askwith, North Yorkshire

Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 15802 48393

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.509

Getting Here

Walk about a mile along West Lane from Askwith village, towards Ilkley, until you reach a notable rounded bend in the road where, in the field immediately above you (behind the thorns) on your left, is a small scatter of large rocks at the edge of the field.  One of these is what you’re after! (although this stone is just a couple of yards from the roadside, you can’t just pull up here and have a look — unless you’re an idiot! — without causing one hellova bad accident.  So don’t do it!)

Archaeology & History

Carving no.509, Askwith

First described in Boughey & Vickerman’s (2003) survey, this is a curious “design” — if indeed that’s the right word!  On the upper surface we can see, very clearly, one large cup and two deep curved lines set away from the cup-marking.  One of these lines appears to curve along and down the edge of the rock and, on the shaded side below (somewhat overgrown with nettles when we were looking at it), what may be another large cup-mark and a continuation of the same “carved” line, roughly as drawn in the 2003 survey.  It looks pretty good (if you’re a sad rock-art freak like me), but there could be another reason for the markings…

A mile upstream on the eastern edges of the wooded Scales Gill valley (known in previous centuries as both St. Helen’s Ghyll and the Fairy Dell), recent forestry and industrial work has scarred a number of rocks with engraved lines upon more faded cups or gunshot marks.  When we wandered up here a few days ago and found a couple of these recently scarred stones, I remarked on how, in years to come, unless we made note of these very modern curves and grooves on the rocks, that future archaeologists will be cataloguing them as cup-and-ring stones.  Several hours later on the way back home from our moorland wanderings, we ventured upon this, stone no.509.

I mention this for good reason: as a century back, only 100 yards away, are the remains of what was an old quarry that used industrial machinery similar to the ones that have made the recent curved markings on the stones a mile up the valley.  And as we can see quite clearly with this stone and its companions, they’ve been moved and dumped into their present position at the field-side.  We should keep this ingredient in mind when looking at this stone, just in case the archaeologists who’ve logged this as prehistoric have got their dates out by a few thousand years.  With any luck however, I’ve got it all wrong…

References:

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

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Stanbury Hill (097), Bingley Moor, West Yorkshire

Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 10970 43361

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.78 (Hedges)

Getting Here

To get here, follow the same directions to reach the ornate Lunar Stone.  Once here, walk about 20 yards west towards where the brow of the hill begins to slope down.  Amble about and you’ll easily find it.

Archaeology & History

This is a fascinating carving.  Fascinating, inasmuch as it seemingly keeps changing appearance when Nature moves her daylight hues and whimsical unpredictability betwixt the hills, surrounding landscape and human observer.  Depending very much where you stand and when you look at this small rock — dappled with unacknowledged veils of sunlights, grey winds and other natural forces — determines what the stone shows you.  This carving as much as any upon this hill shows once again the hugely neglected dynamic between human purveyor and Nature’s powerful subtlety: an organic exchange of moods from stone to man and back again; very much how our ancestors saw things to be…

Pecked lines clearly visible on the far end of the rock
Carving from above

For if we were to merely pay attention to what the reference books tell us about this carving (good reference books though they are!), we’d simply be seeing a rock possessing a “cup and partial ring and two other possible cups”, as Boughey & Vickerman (2003) and other students might do.  But then, if conditions change, only subtly, and we gaze instead of study, other things can emerge.  And just such a thing happened when we came here yesterday…

On my first visit here I could only see a single cup-marking, with another ‘debatable’ close by.  The light of day wasn’t quite right it seemed.  But when we visited here yesterday, the sun, the light, the land and our ambling minds saw much more unveiled from this old grey surface.  Whilst two cups-and-rings seem to link with another cup on the lower end of the stone, amidst the natural cracks and fissures, on the higher end are very distinct carved pecked lines, one of which has been blatantly cut onto, or upon, the long curving crack which runs from one end of the stone to the other.  As this carved line emerges out of the natural crack, it heads upwards.  As it does so, another line has been pecked running off it to the left and then curves back down the sloping rock-face once again.  But in this previously unrecognised carved section, these lines may extend even further up the rock…..it’s hard to say for sure.  We could do with greater analysis of its surface, with further observations under yet more lighting conditions.

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
  2. Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian