Named boringly after the catalogue number given it in Boughey & Vickerman’s (2003) survey, this is another of the many small cup-marked stones clustered at the western end of the ridge between Delves Beck and Dryas Dike, below the moorland slope up to the Old Pike and Beamsley Beacon. It’s one of the more impressive of the carvings in this locale, albeit when it’s highlighted, as in the photos shown here (apparently done by one of the photographers in the Ilkley rock art group, I was told). It’s perhaps better seen when the sun is low and the stone’s been wet, which shows the shallow undulations of the cup-marks and wavy line that seems to split the main group of twelve cup-marks at the top northern side of the stone, from the two on its south side. There seems to be another wavy line carved above the main cluster, but this is difficult to make out.
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
From the old T-junction in the hamlet of Langbar (where some doods have stuck up one of those ‘Private Road’ signs, typical of those Southern-types who bring their weird private land notions up here), go along the ‘private road’, keeping to the left until the road runs out. Then follow the small footpath above the house onto the moor, following the lines of walling along, crossing boggy streams, up the small hill and, once over the top and dropping down, keep your eyes peeled for the large boulder to the left of footpath, and a small scattered cairn on your right. It just a few yards past the cairn material!
Archaeology & History
Just 20-30 yards up the slope on the north side of Dryas Dike stream, to the left of the footpath, is a small, rounded flat stone with perhaps as many as eight cup-markings on it. Six seems more believable — though some of ’em on here (if not all) don’t look to have the air of authenticity that some of the other carvings hereabouts possess. One of the cups has a small ‘tail’ protruding from it. It’s a rather cute little thing! A small, unexcavated cairn lies in ruin about 10 yards east of the crude carving.
…and from another angle
On the other side of the footpath from here is that “large boulder” I mentioned above, which is reported by Boughey & Vickerman (2003) to have “one clear cup” marking etched upon it. They also report that archaeologists from “English Heritage report two cups and a possible short groove” on this rock. However none of the carvings reported here by either authority are man-made. All marks on the rock are completely natural and it needs omitting from any future archaeological survey.
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
In the middle of the moors, with no footpaths close by. Unless you’re a rock-art freak I guess there aint gonna be too many people searching for it! From the Ilkley-to-Langbar road, take the track (Parks Lane) onto the moor where the road bends right. Follow it up for about a mile (though it doesn’t seem that far) and where the cup-marked stone at the edge of the wall where the spring appears (Middleton Moor carving 483), walk west (left) into the heather for a coupla hundred yards below Foldshaw Ridge. Look around!
This is one of a small cluster of carvings Richard Stroud found on a few average-sized stones prettty close to each other in April 2005 — and one which the West Yorkshire Archaeology Service told him couldn’t be there cos the region had already been surveyed. Hmmm…
Crap drawing!
Well, my first impression of this when I saw it was a absolute thumbs-up! Simple to look at, I know – but a bloody good little carving. It’s primary characteristic is that most of the ten or eleven cups occur on the vertical and near-vertical face, which aint too common. In traditional societies (though not all) where carvings occur on vertical faces, they’re deemed to be ‘male’ in nature (those on rounded smooth surfaces, female). The carving is well worth checking out — especially as there’s probably more to be found up here, hiding beneath ages of peat and heather.
To find this, follow exactly the same directions as that of the Middleton Moor Carving 001, which is just a few yards away. Both of these stones may take some finding when the heather’s deep — but when we first discovered them, the heather had recently been burnt back.
Archaeology & History
This small rounded stone had a covering of vegetation on it when Richard Stroud and I first discovered it in April 2005, with just a couple of cups visible, but once the heather’d been carefully rolled back, another fine carving greeted our keen-eyed petroglyphic senses!
Drawing of the carving…and again!
At least eight cups seem apparent here, though once Richard had the photos processed there appeared to be a couple of things on the stone which we hadn’t noticed when in the field (a common cup&ring dilemma). One of the most curious parts of the stone seems to be the winding line near the bottom of the stone. Make of it what you will!
Just a couple of yards east of this carving we find the rounded remains of a single burial cairn, probably for just one person, just like as with Middleton Moor 001. This site could do with excavating, as we may have a small neolithic or Bronze-Age cemetery hiding under the heath.
From Gelligaer, take the northernern road up Heol Adam for 2-300 yards, where you’ll see a footpath on your left taking you into the fields. Walk up the path and as it crosses the wall and bends due east, you’ll see the boulder in the middle of the field. That’s it!
Archaeology & History
Across the road from Tir-y-Rhen is this singular flat boulder, measuring about 10ft x 6ft, with at least 33 full cup-markings etched on it. Described briefly in Chris Houlder’s (1974) Welsh Archaeological guide, then more recently in John Sharkey’s (2004) Welsh rock-art book where he told there to be perhaps another seventeen cups on its surface, the Royal Commission (1976) lads gave us the surity of definition in their survey of neolithic sites in the region. A kilometre north of Gelligaer, some 260m above sea level, we find this well-preserved carved rock:
“An approximately rectangular block…much weathered at at the corners…2.6m long NE-SW, by 1.7m wide, and about 0.6m thick. The upper surface is covered with a haphazard series of 33 cup-marks varying from 40 to 115mm in diameter, and from 5 to 60mm deep… There are also 17 more cup-marks which are too weathered for precise measurement, but whose presence is certain. Other may have been completely worn away. Two more slabs of stone are just visible under the west corner of the main stone, suggesting the possibility that the cup-marks were made on the capstone of a cromlech, now collapsed.”
An earlier account by Wheeler (1925) described a number of lines or channels linking some cup-marks to each other, but these are now very difficult to see. I’ll hopefully get some decent images of this carving sometime soon!
References:
Houlder, Chris, Wales: An Archaeological Guide, Faber: London 1974.
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments, Wales, An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan – Volume 1: Pre-Norman, Part 1: The Stone and Bronze Ages, HMSO: Cardiff 1976.
Sharkey, John, The Meeting of the Tracks, Gwas carreg gwalch: Llanwrst 2004.
Wheeler, R.E.M., Prehistoric and Roman Wales, Oxford University Press 1925.
Various ways to get here (being in the middle of the moor n’ all). I s’ppose the best way is to go from Langbar village, up hill to The Old Pike giant cairn, then follow the footpath on about 100 yards before dropping down the slope to your right, south (NOT the other way!). You’ll notice some walling and an old path near the bottom of the slope SE from you – head in that direction, but before you get there, a coupla hundred yards before, stop and look around. Good luck!
Archaeology & History
Found halfway up the southern slope beneath The Old Pike giant cairn, we find this large, flat earthfast stone, on which are the very faded remains of archetypal cup-and-ring motifs. At the top-end of the stone are slightly more pronounced cup-markings – seemingly more than is shown on the drawing, with the multiple-rings halfway along the stone. On the southeastern part of the stone, Richard Stroud found another previously unseen aspect of the carving, consisting of one large ring, with perhaps a line running out to the east. This can be seen in the water-highlighted photo.
Langbar Stone, with extra single ring not previously noted
If you visit this carving, try and get to the Middleton Moor CR-482 stone half-a-mile southwest – where I for one got the distinct impression that whoever carved that stone, also carved this one! Barmy p’raps — but if we don’t allow subjective interface here and there, we never learn a damn thing!
Listed as stone 459 in Boughey & Vickerman’s (2003) survey, they erroneously ascribe Eric Cowling to have found it in Rombald’s Way (1946), whereas the first mention of it appears to have been by Stuart Feather in 1966 (though Cowling does mention a ‘Langbar Stone’, but illustrates another one nearby).
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Cowling, Eric T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
Feather, Stuart, ‘Mid-Wharfedale Cup-and-Ring Markings. No.41, Langbar Moor, Ilkley,’ in Bradford Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 11, 1966.
From The Royalty hotel, walk along the footpath onto the Chevin itself, turning left then walk about 350 yards east, past the small copse of trees. Just north of the main path before the land slopes down you’ll find it. It’s carved on an earthfast rock about 6 feet long.
Archaeology & History
This is an excellent carving if you’re into cup-and-rings! Eric Cowling (1940) first described the stone* in an article for the Yorkshire Archaeology Society. Although it’s somewhat faded, when the stone’s wet and the sun’s low on the horizon, you can make out more rings than just the three which Boughey & Vickerman (2003) described in their survey.
Folklore
Knotties Stone (E.T. Cowling)
Although the Chevin itself has a tradition of ‘supposed’ heathen goings-on in bygone days, the carving has nothing specific said about it. Although one intriguing bit of info comes from the old Otley historian, Harold Walker (1974), who said that,
“blocks of stone were sent from (the) Chevin to form the foundations of the Houses of Parliament”!
Those lying deviants probably smashed up a few bits of extra rock art when they did this — not that those sorta people give a shit about anything unless it’s about money.
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Cowling, E.T., ‘A Classification of West Yorkshire “Cup-and-Ring” Stones,’ in Archaeology Journal, 97, 1940.
Cowling, E.T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
Hotham, John Paul, Halos and Horizons, Hotham Publishing: Leeds 2021.
Walker, Harold, This Little Town of Otley, Olicana: Otley 1974.
* Graeme Chappell tells me that this carving was named after Cowling’s nickname, Knotty!
Seemingly destroyed, this carved standing stone was first described in Shaw’s Tourist Guide to the Isle of Man (1877), where he says it stood by the wall of the chapel, telling how it was “one of several stones inscribed with various designs and inscriptions.”
Hope that I’m wrong, but it seems like we’ve lost some more good old cup-and-ring art…
Loadsa ways to get to this little outcrop, which the Boughey & Vickerman survey (2003) says comprises of five different carvings (CRs 33-37). I’m not so sure misself. When Stuart Feather first found these in the 1950s, he only thought three stones were carved, which I think is the more accurate.
Most folk would probably prefer to walk down the slope from Holden Gate down the footpath past Jaytail Farm, then dropping down to the very bottom of the fields (south) where you’ll see a small knoll with a cluster of rocks just in front of the tree-line. But I wandered up thru the ‘Private’ (ahem!) woodland, wet-thru in the pouring rain, and clambered over the wall right to the very spot (the old dowser’s ‘seek-and-find-rock-art’ nose worked again!).
Archaeology & History
High Carr Cup-Marked Stone – from Hedge’s Carved Rocks on Rombald’s Moor
Listed in John Hedge’s (1986) survey as carvings 1-5, I’d say there’s one “definite” carving here, but the others – comprising simply of cups – are a little dubious. The main carving has at least six definite cup-markings, found on the rock at the highest point of the knoll at the bottom of the field. The drawing in Hedge’s survey shows as many as 12 cups on this stone, but I’m not totally convinced. Another stone right next to the main one has, perhaps, a cup-marking or two on it – but again, these may be natural.
Of the other alleged carvings, it was difficult to work out as they were literally covered in tons of cow-shit. It seems this rock-outcrop is the local bovine toilet! A lovely secluded place though, with plenty of wildlife to see. Next stop from here: the great Holden waterfalls!
References:
Boughey, K. & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYMCC: Wakefield 2003.
Feather, S., ‘Three Bronze Age Rock Carvings near Keighley,’ in CHAGB 4:3, 1959.
Hedges, John D., The Carved Rocks on Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – NT 499 403
Archaeology & History
The Scottish Royal Commission reported how,
“in 1936 a cup-marked boulder measuring 3ft 10in in length, 3ft 8in width and 1ft 8in in thickness, was found in a cultivated field half a mile southeast of Hawksnest and 75 yards north of the road from Hawksnest to Ladhopemoor.”
The carved stone had been scarred a little by the plough, but had “23 shallow cup-marks on its upper surface varying from 1in to 1.75in diameter.” This carving is curiously omitted from Ronald Morris’ Prehistoric Rock Art of Southern Scotland (1981), so perhaps the carving has been lost. Does anyone know owt more about it?
References:
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Roxburghshire – volume 2, HMSO: Edinburgh 1956.
