Panorama Woods (236), Ilkley, West Yorkshire

Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 10395 47039

Also Known as:

1. Carving no.68 (Hedges)
2. Carving no.236 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

From Ilkley, take the Wells Road heading towards White Wells, bending round the bottom of the moor, making sure you keep left along Westwood Drive (not further up the moor along the Keighley Road).  Keep along Westwood Drive – it becomes Panorama Drive after a while – until you come to the small copse of woods on your right, a short distance before the end of the road.  Go along the footpath by the wall at the side of the house, bending into the woods after 10 yards.  Another 10 yards on, you’re near the edge a drop down the slope, where a number of large rocks are seen.  Look around!

Archaeology & History

A singular cup-and-ring carving can be seen, rather faintly, near the nose-end of this large mossy stone, close to the edge of the ridge.  It is one of a small cluster of carvings that remain in this small bit of woodland.  Other highly ornate carvings could once be seen in the same stretch of woodland — where the rich houses now stand — amidst remains of a prehistoric enclosure or settlement of some sort.  All remains of this settlement have been destroyed, which is a pity as it may have given us helpful information about the nature of this carving and its nearby relatives.

References:

1. Bennett, Paul, The Panorama Stones, Ilkley, TNA: Yorkshire 2012.
2. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.
3. Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian