Bowl Stone, Steeton, West Yorkshire

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 03593 43673

Also Known as:

1. Crater Stone
2. Little Snowden Cup-Marking

Getting Here

From Steeton go to the top of Mill Lane, turning left up High Street. After about 200 yards, turn right (opposite Falcon Cliff street) and go down past the end of the row of terrace houses, to the end of the dirt-track past the allotments.  Then cut up the fields to the rocky crags a coupla hundred yards above you on the left.  Over the wall at the top, look out for the single tree in the field by the walling where there’s a small cluster of stones.  That’s it!

Archaeology & History

Hiding away on private land, this lovely simple carving was first located on Wednesday, April 7, 2010 (in the fine company of the Great Guru).  Our initial assessment found it to be just a simple cup-marked stone with 4 normal cup-marks, plus two large ‘bowls’ just where the rock goes into the ground.  When we found it the other day, Steve pulled a little bit of the earth back to get a better look at the stone, but we need to return here to unearth the rest of the stone (we didn’t have utensils with us this day, as we were just playing out).

The position of the stone in the land is excellent for views, looking down on the greater-looking Dragon Stone carving just a few yards away, but also looks across the Aire Valley and onto the moorland heights above Rivock, and the south-side of Ilkley Moor.  I’ll update and add further notes and clearer images when we go back to the site (hopefully) in the next week (aswell as hopefully conjure up a more respectable title!).

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian