Tadpole Stone, Eastwoods Rough, Dacre, North Yorkshire

Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 18601 61644

Also known as:

1. Eastwoods Rough II Carving
2. IAG638b (Boughey)

Getting Here

To get here, follow the same directions as if you’re going to the Morphing Stone.  This carving is in the same field, but about 100 yards SSW of there, just to the south-side of the Nidderdale Way footpath.  There’s plenty of rocks about, but with a bit of patience or a natural rock-art dowser’s nose, you’ll find the carving easily enough!

Archaeology & History

This is another relatively recent find — though I wonder whether the nearby ‘Fertility Stone’ (about 500 yards north, in some walling) should switch names with this carving, as this one gives the distinct impression of sperm fertilizing the egg!  Don’t you agree!?  The name of the Tadpole Stone was given to it by Michala Potts — and the photograph and design are used, courtesy of Richard Stroud.  In the next field from here, towards Eastwoods Farm, we find the Eastwoods Cross base and cup-markings and adjacent cup-marked stone.  Not far away are other carvings, aswell as a number of other Bronze- and Iron-Age sites.

This design was described in Keith Boughey’s (2007) article on the rock art around Eastwoods Farm, telling how it

“was discovered by Kevin Cale and reported to the N.Y.C.C. SMR back in 2001… A low profile moss-covered earthfast rock a little over 1m in diameter in any one direction immediately S of the Nidderdale Way about 100m east of the end of Monk Ing Road and S of Eastwoods Farm at SE 18601 61643 and 172m O.D. Its domed surface carries a somewhat unusual design interestingly reminiscent of the design carved at the previous site which lies in the same field and landscape 160m to the north-west… An oval or egg-shaped groove enclosed up to six cups; a groove or channel, often referred to as a ‘comet tail’ in rock art motif vocabulary, runs from the central group of the six out beyond the enclosing groove, bends sharply and continues down over the sloping face of the rock.  A wide groove at the base of the rock running into the present turf line may be a further element of the carving.”

References:

1. Boughey, K., “Prehistoric Rock Art: Four New Discoveries in Nidderdale,” in Prehistoric Research Section Bulletin, no.44, Yorkshire Archaeological Society 2007.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian