Takes a bitta finding this one. From the Twin Towers at the top of the moors (Whetstone Gate), walk east along the footpath, past the towers for about another 100 yards, looking out on the other side of the wall until you meet with some walling running downhill onto Morton Moor. Follow this walling for a few hundred yards till it drops down a small valley; then follow the valley down, keeping to its left-hand side, swerving a little round Black Knoll above you. Cross the dried-up stream and about 100 yards ahead of you (southeast), heading towards the Sweet Well, zigzag about (once the heather’s grown back here, this’ll take some finding!). Good luck!
Archaeology & History
Cup-markings, looking north
There’s no previous history to this site and archaeological records indicate no prehistoric remains in this region. However, we (that is Dave, Mikki and me) found this and a number of other sites yesterday in a bimbling wander, to and fro, through boggy-heaths and deep heather. It’s a previously unrecorded cup-marked stone, with what seems like an attached burial cairn right by its side (yet again!). The cairn is 3 yards by 2 yards across. Two very distinct cup-marks can clearly be seen near the top of the small stone, with a possible third just below. A curious though natural yoni-like erosion can be seen on the lower side of the stone which may have some significance to people into that sorta thing! Whether it had owt to do with the cup-markings is another thing altogether!
From East Morton village, take the moorland road, east, and up the steep hill. Where the road levels out there’s a right turn, plus (more importantly!) a trackway on your left which leads onto the moor. Go up this track and keep walking till you hit a moorland ‘footpath’ signpost. Just before this walk due west (your left) into the heather for about 10 yards. Look around! (if the heather’s long and overgrown, you might have trouble finding it)
Archaeology & History
Thought to be one of several carvings that were first reported by Stuart Feather and described in the Yorkshire Archaeological Register* of 1977: near the “denuded remains of a cairn” (there are in fact two here) is “a further cup-marked rock adjacent.” This is thought to be the one registered in John Hedges’ (1986) survey as ‘stone 91’. It’s a cute little thing, about 10 yards south of carving 110 (itself sited near the centre of a much-denuded burial cairn).
Carving 109, when wet!and when dry!
Similar in design to some of the Baildon Moor cup-marked stones (see carving no.126), the primary design here is a simple one: five cup-markings run along the edge of the small stone, with a small carved “line” running between two of the cups, as if denoting separation; whilst on the lower middle part of the stone is another, single cup, a little more worn than the others. It seems likely that this carving, like its double-ringed companion a few yards away (and others on this part of the moors) was in some way associated with the nearby prehistoric cairns.
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
Moorhouse, S. (ed.), “Yorkshire Archaeological Register: 1977,” in Yorkshire Archaeology Journal, volume 50, 1978.
* Does anyone have any idea who you report such new discoveries to so that they can be reported in Yorkshire Archaeology Society’s ‘Register’? I’ve asked ’em several times about a number of previously unrecorded sites that we’ve located, so that they can make a record of them, but I never get a reply.
From Bingley, head up to Eldwick (either road, it doesn’t matter) until you hit the crossroads at the top where you go up Heights Lane onto the moors (ask someone if you’re struggling). Right at the top where the lane meets the moorland road, straight across is a dirt-track onto the moor. You’re going up there! Walk up for about 350 yards, then go into the heather on your left. About 20-30 yards in, keep your eyes peeled for the stone in the photo. It’s low down, a few feet across either way, but easily missed when it gets covered in heather.
Archaeology & History
Todmoor carving’s cup & lines
Up here again today — Mikki Potts, Dave and me — this was first carving we came to. It was first discovered by the late great Stuart Feather (1961) on one of his many forays onto these moors. It’s a bittovan odd carving: deep wide grooves, seemingly carved out by humans, in which some other cups have then been carved; plus an odd scatter of other singular cup-markings, what looks like a double-cup, and a long winding line running from near the middle to the stone’s western edge. All the carved elements have been etched onto the southern half of the stone. The lovely little Todmor standing stone is about 50 yards northwest of here.
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Feather, Stuart, “Mid-Wharfedale Cup-and-Ring Markings. Nos. 5 & 6,” in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 6:7, 1961.
Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
From the back of Moor End Farm on the south-side of Langbar village, follow the Long Ridge footpath up onto the moor. Walk along the path until its starts dipping down again, onto the moor proper and where another footpath crosses and goes down into the small valley of the Dryas Dike stream: follow it down, crossing the stream and up the small slope till you’re on the next level of ground. Stop here and walk right, off-path and up the gentle slope towards a small fenced-off piece of moor. About 30 yards before the fence, check out the rocks under your noses. You’re damn close!
Archaeology & History
If you’re gonna come up this region, this is the carving you’ll most wanna check out. It’s the most ornamented of all the cup-and-ring stones at the top of Delves Beck. Comprising at least five full cup-and-rings and a number of single cups, carved on a roughly square flat rock, it was first found by Stuart Feather in the mid-1960s. It sits amidst a cluster of many other carvings on the same ridge. This (for me at least) is something of a curiosity, inasmuch as we have a seeming lack of other prehistoric remains in attendance.
Carving 448 with paint damage…and again, with paint damage
On the other side of the Wharfe valley above Ilkley, aswell as where we find cup-and-ring clusters on the Aire valley side at Baildon and East Morton, a preponderance of burials tend to cluster around clusters of rock art; but this doesn’t, initially, seem evident here. A possible cairn is located on the northern side of this small ridge, and there is distinct evidence of another cairn down the slope on the other side of the Dryas Dike stream (by stone 440) just 100 yards away, but that’s it. A more thorough examination of this region is required to see if other burial remains were in evidence hereby in the past. I have photos of seemingly cairn-scatter material, and ancient walling in is clear evidence on the northern side of Dryas, but much more work needs doing. Obviously much of this would require full surface excavation, which means we’re gonna need quite a bit of work and effort to see if the rock-art/burial patterns found elsewhere are echoed here. It’s likely, it’s gotta be said.
…On a slightly more disturbing note: when me and Dave were up here last week, this carving and several others with more ornate designs on this ridge (carvings 446, 453 and others) had been painted over in some black substance. You can see this clearly in the photos we took, above. Whoever did it appears (word gets to me that a arty-dood called Paul did it) has done so to highlight the carvings so they stand out very clearly. If you wanna highlight carvings for better images or photos, there are much better ways of bringing out the designs than the methods you employed there: chalk for one!
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Feather, Stuart W., “Mid-Wharfedale Cup-and-Ring Markings: Nos 43 & 44, Middleton Moor,” in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 11:4, 1966.
Follow the same directions to find the Middleton Moor carvings of 441, 445, or others close by. If you can get to carving 445, then you’re about 20 yards northeast away from this one! A bittova upright stone, with another undecorated smooth flat rock about one-foot away.
Archaeology & History
Amidst the clump of other carvings on top of the ridge at the head of Delves Beck on the southern side of Dryas Dike, is this small standing-stone-like rock, which has a distinct single cup-marking right on the topmost part of the stone. In certain lighting conditions it seems that there may have been a partial surrounding-ring on its top, or perhaps a smaller faded cup by its side. It’s hard to tell — so let’s play safe and just stick with it being a single-cup stone for the time being!
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Follow the same directions to find Middleton Moor’s 441 carving. Then, go across the small stream a bit further down the slope and up up the slope until you’re on the level. Once on this small rise in the land, look up the slight slope where approaching the the fenced area. You’re close!
Archaeology & History
Middleton Moor carving 445
On the Middle Ridge between the streams of Delves Beck and Dryas Dike, this small rounded triangular-shaped carved stone has eight simple cup-markings eroded, but notable on its smooth surface. Boughey & Vickerman (2003) suggest some may be gunshot marks, which has to be considered at several of the seeming ‘cup-markings’ on this moor. (particularly at Carving no.440 less than 100 yards away) Archaeo-astronomers amongst you will note the Cassiopeia-like central design on this design — though this is probably coincidental (it might have tickled mi fancy when I was going thru my astroarchaeology phase many years back, but not anymore).
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – NZ 0774 7048
Archaeology & History
1928 photo of carving
Found inside a prehistoric tomb that was excavated in the late 1920s “by Messrs R.C. and W.P. Hedley at Pike Hill, near Stamfordham,” this fascinating-looking carving was found on a stone that “was overlying the primary burial” cist in the middle of the tumulus, measuring “2 feet 9 inches long by 2 feet wide and 12 inches deep, with an orientation on the longer axis of NE.” As we can see in the old photo that accompanied Mr Hedley’s (1928) short article in Antiquity journal, four single cups are arranged in a rough square and are joined with each other by a single line, running from cup to cup, outlining a clear quadrilateral formation. Two other single cups are outliers on the left and right side of the ‘square.’
A second smaller cist was also found inside the same mound and on the central inner face of this was another, more simplistic carving described as “a very fine cup-mark 1½ inch in diameter and ¾-inch deep.” These carvings are no longer in situ (I think they’re in Newcastle Museum) and apparently this second single cup-marked stone can no longer be located.
References:
Beckensall, Stan, Northumberland’s Prehistoric Rock Carvings, Pendulum: Rothbury 1983.
Beckensall, Stan, Prehistoric Rock Motifs of Northumberland – volume 2: Beanley to the Tyne, Abbey Press: Hexham 1992.
Hedley, R. Cecil, “Ancient British Burials, Northumberland,” in Antiquity Journal, volume 2, December 1928.
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
The little Crater Stone and its more ornate companion, below
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!).
Take the road up across from Ilkley train station uphill towards the moor until you reach great rocks on your right. From here, the Cow & Calf Stones car park (packed with tourists and litter everywhere these days), go up the steep footpath onto the moor. As you level out looking across the first moorland ridge, to your left is a rounded hillock. Go into the heather there and near its small peak and you’ll find what you’re looking for.
Archaeology & History
This is a nice big stone, found amidst a clump of other stones, that gives the distinct impression of once being a large cairn or similar artificial prehistoric feature. But that’s wishful thinking on my behalf… This long fat 10-foot long rock has the distinct signature of someone who thought it a good idea to carve his little name on the carving in 1978, as the name of the rock tells: “Wray Nov 78” — vandalism which the local Ilkley Parish Council and local businessman Tom Lonsdale validate as little more than “twenty-first century informal unauthorised carving.” Beneath the great artist’s signature we find two distinct cup-marks above a large rounded bowl, inside of which seems to be the impression of an old ring, but this seems due to the actions of water and lichen. There are perhaps another two faded cup-markings alongside those distinctly visible. In Hedges (1986) survey he described the “top flat surface has three cups and one basin” — so let’s play safe and go with that!
Close-up of cups, bowl & modern etching
It’s a good stone, sat upon a fine ridge with distinctive views for miles both east and west along the valley of the Wharfe, and north to the ancient settlements and burial grounds of Middleton Moor on the other side of the River Wharfe. From here, behind and up onto Ilkley Moor, unfolds its greater mythic history, scattered and hidden over differing ages. In years past, this site was a fine one for reflection and insight. Today, one must venture further and to other sites for such quiet realities. Close by you can find the double-ringed carving of stone 318 and other faded cup-mark stones nearby.
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.
From Silsden go up the long hill (A6034) towards Addingham until the hill levels out, then turn left on Cringles Lane (keep your eyes peeled!) for a half-mile where you need to veer right along Banks Lane and go 100 yards past Moorcock Farm Hall where the footpath takes you into the fields on your right. Walk down the line of the wallings, thru the gate, and keep following down until you reach a cluster of large rocks. Stop here and look over the wall where you’ll see one of the boulders poking its head out on the other side. That’s it!
Archaeology & History
First discovered by Eric Cowling in the late 1930s during one of his explorations of the immense Counter Hill earthworks (thought to be Iron Age), whose remains can still be seen encircling the peaked hill close by. The stone is found in the edge of the walling halfway down the field towards the Marchup enclosure and is just inside the outer edge of the Counter Hill ditched enclosure surrounding the hill above you. (on the other side of the wall from the carving, you can make out the remains of the faint line of the ditch running pretty straight up towards the next wall)
Cluster of cups by wallingCounter Hill carving from above
At the top eastern edge of the stone is a clear cluster of 3 cup-markings, just as the rock meets the walling. A much more faint group is visible to the left. Cowling (1946) suggesting that the three-cup-cluster “shows the final form of the fylfot symbol,” i.e., the three-armed swastika. Boughey & Vickerman (2003) meanwhile suggest that one of the two clusters are “doubtful (possibly recent?).”
When we came to this site yesterday, the day was overcast and cloudy. But it seemed there may be more to this carving than has previously been recorded. What may be a faint ring seemed possible near the middle of the stone, with a natural crack running through it (you can just about make it out in the photo on the right). There also seemed to be other faint lines on the rock, but until we’ve been here again with better lighting conditions, the two groups of 3-cups is the symbolic state of play for this stone!
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.
