Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 13044 40093
Also Known as:
- Carving BM5 (Hedges)
- Carving no.122 (Boughey & Vickerman)
Follow the same directions as those to reach the small Central Design Stone up past the top-end of Shipley Glen. You’ll notice the small disused quarry just a few yards away, and this partly-covered flat stone lies right at the very edge of the quarry itself.
Archaeology & History
Unless you catch this stone in good light, many of the cups on this design are difficult to make out; but defocus for a bit and they’ll come to you. Around 13 cups have been counted on this stone, with a couple of grooves: one of which descends just by the small arc (a common local feature on Baildon’s carvings), near the eastern side of the stone. A larger basin below this, covered by earth, may or may not be natural. Two of the cups here may have been carved sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century, probably around the time the quarrying was being done.
As is common in some parts of Britain, this carving (and others nearby) was found in association with a small cairn-field, much of which has long since gone.
It’s very probable that there were other petroglyphs close to this one, but which have subsequently been destroyed as a result of the quarrying operations here.
References:
- Baildon, W. Paley, Baildon and the Baildons – parts 1-15, Adelphi: London 1913-1926.
- Bennett, Paul, Megalithic Ramblings between Ilkley and Baildon, private manuscript: Shipley 1982.
- Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Leeds 2003.
- Jackson, Sidney, “Cup-Marked Boulder near the Glovershaw Footpath,” in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 2:17, 1957.
- Hedges, John, The Carved Rocks on Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian
