High Laithe Stone, Skipton, North Yorkshire

Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SD 9952 4991

Also Known as:

1. Carving SK2 (Hedges)
2. Carving no.17 (Boughey & Vickerman)
   

Getting Here

Worth the short trek if you like your cup&rings!  On the Aire Valley Keighley-to-Skipton road (A629), as you approach the southern outskirts of Skipton, take the turning at the roundabout as if you’re going into the town up the A6131. Go over the next roundabout a coupla hundred yards on, then 200 yards further on note the right-turn up over the canal (big hotel just here, where you could park up).  Walk over the canal up the tiny country lane. Ignore the first left turn and walk up, bearing next left uphill and onto the footpath. Walk up the hillocky quarried bit until you reach the stile in the wall.  Once on the other side, look in the walling 20 yards uphill.  You can’t miss it!

Archaeology & History

First described by Messrs Hartley and Radley in the Yorkshire Archaeological Register of 1968, this small “standing stone”, less than three-feet tall, has a distinct cup-and-double- ring carved onto its upright north-facing edge.  The outline of the carving is visible even in bad light, though you might wanna rest and gaze for a minute or two for yourself and the lighting to adjust if it’s a grey day.  There’s another cup-marking below the bottom right of the double-ring, with another ‘possible’ just above ground-level.

References:

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

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian