Follow the same directions for reaching the Wondjina Stone. Once here, walk to the edge of the cliffs less than 10 yards away and the second largest of the rocks is the one you’re after. (the Rivock Nose [1] and [3] carvings are the rocks either side of this one)
Archaeology & History
Possible cup-markings at Rivock Edge
I’ve gotta admit, I was slightly surprised to find this carving logged in both Hedges (1986) and Boughey & Vickerman’s (2003) surveys. Although we find the distinct appearence of cup-markings near the edge of the cliff at the northwestern end of Rivock Edge, these seem a little too close to being natural to be comfortably acknowledged in archaeo-texts without notes the contrary. I took a photo of them when we were up visiting the other day, but didn’t expect them to be in the books. Not only do they include this probably natural example, they also add another two rocks found along the cliff edges (Hedges 12 & 13; B&V 45 & 47). In the event that these carvings are deemed authentic, then those along the edge of the great Kirk cliffs above Steeton must also be added to the same pot.
In the photo here you can work out perhaps nine cup-marks near the edge of the cliff, which is what the textbooks say. Make your own mind up when your next looking at the Wondjina Stone and others nearby.
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Feather, Stuart, ‘Mid-Wharfedale Cup-and-Ring Markings: Nos. 7 & 8, Rivock Edge,’ in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 6:8, 1961.
Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
A wonderful site, though a bittova walk for city-minded folk. Head up the road from Riddlesden, Keighley, towards the southern edge of Rombalds Moor and keep going till you reach the road which surrounds the moor (called Silsden Road). At the T-junction in front of you is a path which takes you onto the fields and moor. Go over the stile and walk straight up the steepish field that follows the straight line of the forest, all the way to the top. Climb over the wall on your left when you reach the top of the tree-line, walk past the triangulation pillar for 100 yards or so till you hit the end of the walling before it drops back into the trees. The carving’s under your nose!
Archaeology & History
Rivock Edge’s ‘Wondjina’ carving
The name of this carving is based on a first impression I got of it when I came here as a young lad, still in my teens. The ‘Wondjina’ is a name given to primal aboriginal spirits whose images are etched and painted on rock surfaces in various parts of Australia (usually rock overhangs or in caves). Don’t ask me why, but that was the impression I first got of this stone — and it’s something that stays with me. Some archaeo’s won’t like the association such mythic ancestral beings may have upon people’s notions of cup-and-ring art, but they tend to be the ones who have little educational background regarding the animistic nature of rocks in traditional and peasant societies: ingredients that are integral to these ancient carvings, as research worldwide clearly shows.
The carving was first described by our old Yorkshire historian Arthur Raistrick (1936) in an early essay on Yorkshire rock carvings; and then again in a later article by Stuart Feather. (1961) The primary design is of a large single cup-and-ring at one end of the rock, with a series of seemingly unbroken lines reaching up (or perhaps moving away) from the cup-and-ring. A long central line runs through the middle of the Wondjina ‘being’, which initially seems to have been a series of cups linked by this line; though these cups (at least four of them) have eroded over time and are difficult to see without good sunlight. What seem to be several other very eroded cup-marks are also found on two of the other long lines. These can be made out in the photograph here.
Close-up of lines & cup-marks
Another carving is on the stone right next to this one (2ft away) and there are several other cup-marked stones to be found along the same ridge (carving numbers 058, 059, 060, etc). And for those of you into landscape archaeology, take the position of this carving into consideration. The view from here is quite superb and on clear days a number of prominent hills and important mythological landscape features stand out. To those of you who think such things unimportant or of little relevance in the mythography of our ancestors — you’ve a lot to learn! Otherwise, a visit to this carving and its associates is well worth a trek!
References:
Bennett, Paul, ‘The Prehistoric Rock Art and Megalithic Remains of Rivock & District (2 parts),’ in Earth, 3-4, 1986.
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Feather, Stuart, ‘Mid-Wharfedale Cup-and-Ring Markings: Nos. 7 & 8, Rivock Edge,’ in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 6:8, 1961.
Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
Raistrick, Arthur, “‘Cup-and-Ring’ Marked Rocks of West Yorkshire,’ in Yorkshire Archaeology Journal, 32, 1936.
From East Riddlesden, go up the road (over the swing-bridge) that takes you onto the moor-edge (ask a local if you have trouble). Go all the way up till you hit the road which encircles the moor (it’s called the Silsden Road where you hit it). Turn left for several hundred yards till you see the microwave tower just on the hillock to your right on Pinfold Hill (not the larger TV towers just below the forest). Walk up there, then follow the edge of the walling till you hit the old Pinus sylvestris trees of Robin Hood’s Wood where 2 walls meet. Go over the gate and walk to your right for about 200 yards, following the line of the walling. You’re there!
Archaeology & History
Cluster of cups on W edge
A newly-discovered cup-marked stone, located for the first time on Tuesday, June 9, 2009, by Michala Potts, who was out on an amble with some long-haired halfwit whizzing about getting excited about stupid cup-markings on stones, dragging her back and forth and leaving her in the middle of a bog! On one occasion when this ‘ere fruitbat wandered off (again!), leaving her alone in the middle of the hills, she decided to check out some rocks a bit further up the slope where she’d been left alone. And there, along the edge of some walling, right on the edge of the much-denuded Robin Hood’s Wood, a short distance west of Rivock, a curious stone popped out and caught her attention!
Was this a cup-marking she saw before her!? It certainly was! But she didn’t call out to this halfwit who’d left her to her own devices. She let him just wander off to his sad heart’s content, whilst she got into the nitty-gritty of checking the stone out, uncovering the essentials of the carving while he bimbled off like a freak! And what a nice carving it was she found…
Baldwin Stone – looking westFirst sketch of the stone
Although no accurate measurements were made of the stone (it was bigger than 10-inch!), at least 17 cup-markings were counted here: one singular and very well-preserved cup, alone on its southern edge, right by the walling. But the main feature of the design is a cluster of cup-marks (at least 11) on the western side of the rock — one part of this cluster having the appearance of the figure 5 on a dice! Several other well-defined cups occur on the central and more northern end of the rock.
Eventually, her sad stone-wandering fella returned, forlorn, having found no new carvings of his own (poor soul!). And so she took his poor little hand, and took him to see the little prehistoric treasure she’s uncovered — and her sad little man got all smiley and … well, you know what they’re like!
Additionally however, for the archaeo’s amongst you: if you come wandering up here to check this carving out, you’ll notice the remains of many large upright stones in a lot of the old stone walls round here. Many of these are the remains of Iron Age walling.
Follow the directions for getting to the great Badger Stone carving. From here, walk eastwards on the footpath for about 400 yards. Hereabouts walk off the path and down the slope just a few yards and amble back and forth, checking the various stones. Keep doing this until you find it! (luckily, this stone’s marked on the OS-map) There are several other reasonable carvings nearby on the same plain…the Green Gates Stone (or carving no.257) for one!
Archaeology & History
The Pitchfork Stone (after Hedges, 1986)
First found (or rather, recorded) by our old friend Stuart Feather and described in Bradford’s Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group’s Bulletin in 1961. It’s status was all-but-secret until Hedges edited the Ilkley Archaeology Group’s Carved Rocks work in 1986. The stone’s a simple design as the illustration shows: an urn-like vessel with a cup in the middle; but the attached groove at the bottom gave one anonymous chap (who dared to use the modern name of RombaldII!) the idea of it looking like a pitchfork – so the name sticks!
The enclosing “lines” that make up the pitchfork aspect of the carving are pretty enhanced (as we can see in the photograph here) and may, just may, be the result of a more recent petroglyphic artist.
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Feather, Stuart, ‘Mid-Wharfedale Cup-and-Ring Markings – Nos. 2 & 3, Ilkley Moor,’ in Bradford Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 6, 1961.
Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
Follow the same directions for getting to the Idol Stone, then walk just 30 yards further up the path and it’s the big rock on your left-hand side. Y’ can’t miss it!
Archaeology & History
Main section of cup-marks
This nice big boulder can be quite a temperamental chap, depending on how the light plays with the rock surface. I’ve got some photos of this old stone where you can see next to nowt on it; where as others show clearly aspects of the design that aren’t on the archaeo-images. But such is the nature of cup-and-rings I s’ppose!
Unlike its rather linear companion a few yards away, this great boulder has the more typical scattering of faded cups, lines and at least one cup-and-ring, etched with seemingly little purpose or structural design. But as we know, the very notion of structural design in forms consistent to modern mind-sets were anathema to the neolithic people who were etching these patterns on rocks. Indeed, even the notions of these images as ‘art’ as defined in modern times, has no relationship to the intrinsic reality of either cup-and-rings or reality per se, as experienced by our ancestors. And I think we find an explicit affirmation of this in the Cluster Stone here.
Close-up of cup-and-ring
Natural cuts in the rock have been heightened, for whatever reason, so that today the division between Nature’s marks and the mark of humans have become ambiguous as time has worn the features. The clustering of cup-marks on certain parts of the rock was surely indicative of (what we would term) separate events/forms, whose mythic relationship were, however, intrinscially related. This may be representative of a landscape map, or a series of events – but each would relate to one and other. But, of course, we truly don’t know, so think I’d best shut up!
Cluster Stone design (after Hedges 1986)
The carving itself, as we can see today, has perhaps as many as 40 cup-marks on it (Boughey & Vickerman safely vouch for 26), with five or six lines running across the surface, some of which have been modified by ancient peoples. The cup-and-ring on the stone is quite distinct. Neolithic or Bronze Age walling runs just a few yards away from here, but the precise line it takes has not been accurately assessed.
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, West Yorkshire Archaeology Service 2003.
Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
Follow directions to get to the Pancake Stone. From here walk SE on the footpath that runs on the edge of the moor. After about 200 yards you’ll hit a small footpath which heads into the moor (south). Walk on here for about 200 yards and notice the small rise in the land to your right (if you cross the small stream where the land dips into a very small valley, you’ve gone past). That’s it! The Little Haystack Rock is less than 100 yards away down the slope from here.
Archaeology & History
Of approximately eighty prehistoric cairns that have been alleged to exist along the Green Crag Slack ridge on Ilkley Moor, this site in particular is worthy of note, due mainly to its size. As independent archaeological researcher Paul Bowers said of it when he first saw this cairn-spoil, “it seemed too big to have not been discovered in the past.” Too right!
Mini-Skirtful, looking west
When we tracked across Green Crag Plain a few days ago, it was Michala Potts that called our attention to it. Half-covered in full heather growth, only the eastern edge was exposed. At first it seemed that it was loose prehistoric walling, but then I realised it was on the edge of small knoll and the stone work was deeper and wider than walling. As we explored through the heather atop of the knoll, it was obvious that there was a more extensive gathering of stones scattered all over the top of this small rise, and it seemed that we were looking at the remains of a reasonable sized cairn. Its extent carries about ten yards down the slope from the small hillock, but only a few yards either side of it. It seems likely that the extended loose stones have, over the centuries, simply slipped further down the slope. However, not until a decent excavation occurs will we know anything certain. It is possibile that this is simply the scattered remains of damaged neolithic or Bronze Age walling, but only a more detailed exploration of the site will tell us for sure.
Cowling (1946) mentioned the numerous cairns and scattered walling reaching across this part of Ilkley Moor, but gave no specific information relating to this mini-skirt full of stones! (blame Mikki for the title!)
References:
Cowling, E.T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
Follow directions for getting to the Haystack Rock. Once here, walk dead straight south onto the moor and go up the slope you see a few hundred yards ahead of you. Once you’re at the top of the slope, a few yards onto the ridge itself, look around! If there’s deep heather growth when you arrive, you’ve no chance!
Archaeology & History
To my limited knowledge, it appears there’s no previous references to the cairns here. We found at least two of them, with a probable third not far away; but we were lucky inasmuch that the heather had all been burnt away, allowing a clearer inspection of the sites. The larger of the two is nearly four yards across and nearly a yard high. It’s somewhat larger than the majority of what are thought to be single-person cairns along Green Crag Slack ridge, down the slope.
Much denuded cairn
A smaller cairn less than 100 yards west on the same ridge (near the large boulder with a couple of cup-markings on top) looks as if it was robbed of stone sometime in the past. About six-feet across, this one is more typical of the cairns found on the Ridge below.
There are what seems to be other remains along this ridge, including a very distinct thin, six-foot-long stone, which looks very much as if it could have stood upright in the not-too-distant past. We could do with more heather-burning on this part of the moor to help us out!
Dead easy! Follow the directions to the unmissable Haystack Rock, then look at the small upright stone about 40 yards west, just off the footpath.
Archaeology & History
This is another one of the many carvings I first saw when I was a small lad, about 12 years old, in one of my countless walkabouts over these moors. It’s thought by some to be a small cup-marked standing stone (it’s possible I s’ppose, but improbable); whether that’s the case or not, it certainly has three distinct cup-markings on its east-facing vertical face. There are also what appears to be lines cutting through the cups and running out to near the edge of the stone which may or may not be natural. A small, cute little thing! Boughey and Vickerman (2003) make a note that this carving may be recent — but if so, it was done some considerable time before 1975, when I first clapped eyes on it!
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.
Hedges, John, The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
Head for the binary-like Idol Stone carving and keep walking on the footpath, up the hill. Once on top of the ridge, walk along it to your right (west) for about 300 yards, then walk south (left) into the flat heathland plain. Look around!
Archaeology & History
I’m probably not reading it right – but it seems this large stone with several distinct cup-marks on its vertical south-face, isn’t in the surveys of either Hedges (1986) or Boughey & Vickerman (2003). If someone can correct me on this one – please do!
Green Crag Top Stone, looking north
This is quite a large boulder, as the photos here show. At least two average-sized cup-markings have been etched onto the south face, and two larger ones accompany them on the same edge. There’s another larger cup-mark on the northeast side of the stone, and a possible companion, which may or may not be artificial. Then on top of the stone we have several large cups and a ‘bowl’ — though some of these upper markings may be natural, or just well-eroded cup-marks. It’s hard to tell for sure!
Now I’m gonna have another look in the Hedges, Boughey & Vickerman surveys. They surely can’t have missed this!
Various ways to get here, but the 2 most common are: (1) from Brunthwaite village, above Silsden, following the road uphill for a mile, then turning right (west) onto the moorland dirt-track to Doubler Stones Farm. Just before here there’s a footpath uphill (north) for 200 yards to the stones. (2) follow the Millenium Way footpath south up Addingham Moorside, onto Addingham High Moor. Keep going on the same path another 500 yards and they’ll appear ahead of you.
Archaeology & History
First described as the ‘Doublestones’ in the local Addingham parish records of 1786, these great mushroom-shaped rocks were later brought to the attention of archaeologists by J. Romilly Allen in 1879 and they greatly intrigued numerous Victorian antiquarians, who puzzled as much about their exotic forms as the cup-marks on their tops! Allen wrote of them:
Cowling’s old drawingHedges (1986) sketch of the design
“These rocks are by far the most remarkable freaks of Nature to be seen in the district. They occupy a prominent position, perched on the extremity of a rocky knoll which juts out into the valley; and as seen from below, with their weird forms standing out clear and sharp against the background of blue sky, they present so extraordinary an appearance that they would at once attract the attention of even the most unobservant. In general outline they resemble gigantic toadstools; and I presume that they are called Doubler Stones from the fact of their shapes being almost identical. They may be appropriately described as Nature’s Twins. The upper surface of the cap of one of these stones has three large basin-shaped cavities in it. Two of these lie along the central axis of the stone, and measure respectively 1ft 3in by 2ft 9in deep, and 1ft 9in by 1ft 3in by 9in deep. They are united by a deep groove, a continuation of which runs out over the edge of the stone at each end. There is another basin lying to the west side of the two central ones, with one of which it is connected by grooves. It measures 2ft by 1ft 9in and is 9in deep. There is no direct evidence that these basins are artificial; but it is quite possible that they may have been so originally, and have been enlarged by natural agencies. But in addition to the basins, are twenty-six cup-markings of distinctly artificial origin. They vary in diameter from 2 to 4 in. One group of cups appears to be arranged in parallel rows.”
Doubler Stones, c.1890
Although the writer thought there were no artificial cup-markings on the other Doubler Stone (the one on the left in the photo), John Hedges (1986) and Boughey & Vickerman (2003) cite there to be at least two cup-markings on this rock. Other writers have given different numbers for the respective cup-marks thought to be on these rocks down the years.
If you’re into prehistoric rock-art, check this place out. If you’re a geologist and aint been here, you’ll be even more impressed!
Folklore
Approaching the Doublers (photo – James Elkington)
In Nicholas Size’s Haunted Moor (1934) he described the Doubler Stones as being the abode of ghosts and a place of sacrificial rites in ancient days. While in Guy Ragland Phillips’ Brigantia, we find that the word ‘doubler’ itself “is a large shallow dish, bowl or plate” – which we find on top of the greater one of these two well-worn-weirdoes. As well as being haunted, there is some other little-known, though not unexpected folklore here, which told these old stones to be the meeting place of witches in previous centuries.
In addition to this, we are told that the witches of Fewston valley to the west used to meet up with the more famous Pendle witches at these stones. One historian proclaimed that this notion was spurious, as it would be too far for the Pendle witches to walk – which says more about the historian in question than the people of previous centuries. The distance from Pendle to the Doublers can be traversed in a day and is an ideal meeting spot, away from the prying eyes of a wrathful Church, that sought war against the animistic practices of our ancestors.
References:
Allen, J. Romilly, ‘The Prehistoric Rock Sculptures of Ilkley,’ in Journal of the British Archaeological Association, volume 35, 1879.
Allen, J. Romilly, ‘Notice of Sculptured Rocks near Ilkley,’ ibid, volume 38, 1882.
Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Chieveley 2001.
Boughey & Vickerman, Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, West Yorkshire Archaeology Service 2003.
Cowling, Eric T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
Hedges, John, The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
Jennings, Hargrave, Archaic Rock Inscriptions, A. Reader: London 1891.
Phillips, Guy Ragland, Brigantia: A Mysteriography, RKP: London 1976.
Size, Nicholas, The Haunted Moor, William Walker: Otley 1934.
