Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 13223 46505
Also Known as:
- Carving no.154 (Hedges)
- Carving no.318 (Boughey & Vickerman)
Looking straight down at it
From Ilkley train station, head up Cow Pasture Road and get to the Cow & Calf Hotel (if needs be, ask a local). From its car-park, cross the road and go along the straight-ish footpath onto the moor. Less than 200 yards on, you’ll hit a main track (and a faint cup-marked stone). OK – walk down this track (left) for 30-40 yards, then walk left again into the heather for about 10 yards. You’re looking for a small rounded stone and you’re damn close!
Archaeology & History
…and from another angle
Just over 40 yards east of the very basic Brown Law cup-marked stone, we find this slightly more exotic petroglyph, keeping low in the undergrowth. Difficult to see unless the daylight is just right, preferably as the sun is rising or setting (as with many neolithic carvings), on this small slightly rounded stone we see a central cup-mark surrounded by a double-ring (unfinished, perhaps on its northern edge)—although an outer cup seems to touch the edge of this second ring. As the faint images here show, there are other cups and shallow lines also etched onto the stone, but these are gradually fading as the years go by. It was originally found close to a small cairn that has seemingly been destroyed in recent years.
The carving can be troublesome to find when the heather and bracken gets growing, so it’s best explored in the Winter and early Spring—unless of course you want me to show you it, along with the hundreds of others on these moors! If so, gimme a shout. 😉
References:
- Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.
- Cowling, E.T., Rombald’s Way: A Prehistory of Mid-Wharfedale, William Walker: Otley 1946.
- Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian