Follow the same directions to reach the Middleton Moor carvings, numbers 436 and 437, up along the footpath. This is the easiest to find as it’s right beside the footpath – as Richard Stroud’s photograph clearly shows.
Archaeology & History
Drawing of CR-435Middleton Moor CR-435
Near a cluster of other cup-and-ring marked rocks, this decent example can be found besides what may be a prehistoric trackway running roughly east-west over the Long Ridge to Foldshaw Ridge. Amazingly, this stone was never previously catalogued until Boughey & Vickerman’s survey in 2003. Just goes to show what y’ can find if y’ gerrof yer arses and look for yerselves! Comprising at least thirty cups and several lines, one faint cup-and-ring is discernible on the western edge of the stone.
If you walk westwards, back up to the hilltop from here (only a couple of hundred yards), a single upright stone which some might consider megalithic, stands right before your eyes! An excellent spot!
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Follow the same directions to get to the Middleton Moor Carving 437, along the Ridge Way footpath, and this stone is just a few yards away.
Archaeology & History
This all-but insignificant carving was first described in Boughey & Vickerman’s (2003) survey, as a “small rough grit rock sloping into turf” with what may be two faint cup-markings etched on its surface. Unless you’re a bittova rock-art fanatic, this might not be of much interest to you! (thanks to Richard Stroud for use of his photo!)
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Head for the gorgeous little hamlet of Langbar, a few miles northwest of Ilkley. Less than ½-mile before the village, keep your eyes out for the footpath bearing east onto the moors at Moor End Farm (right-hand side of road if you’ve travelled from Ilkley). Walk along the Long Ridge footpath to where the fields on your left finish and the moorland proper opens up. Hereabouts, check the stones in the heather to your right! If you amble about looking, you’ll find it!
Archaeology & History
Crap drawing of CR-437
This is another one of those carvings for the purists amongst you. Less than ten yards off the footpath on Long Ridge is this medium-sized rock with several cup-marks, and lines, on both its top and vertical faces. Boughey & Vickerman (2003) think there to be at least five cups on the top, with perhaps nine on the vertical east face, though some of these are debatable. (the drawing I’ve done is from their book)
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
About 10 yards north of the old boundary stone on the Middle Ridge heading to the western end of Dryas Dike and about 10-15 yards east of the Middleton 453 carving, is this small rounded rock with between 12 and 15 cup-markings on its north and north-eastern sides. Several curious deep ridges run down across the rock which some ascribe as being man-made – but to me they’re Nature’s fine handiwork, although I may be wrong…
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
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.
Go up the long winding Ilkley-Langbar country moorland road. A coupla miles along there’s a sharp bend in the road, left, with a dirt-track here that takes you onto the moors. Walk up here to the shooting house just east of Black Hill in the Middleton Moor enclosure and, once there, walk up the steepish slope to the left (west). Once on the level, head to the wall and about halfway along, look around. If the heather’s long and deep you’ll be lucky to find it. Good luck!
Archaeology & History
Photo by Richard StroudSketch of the carving
The carving was first discovered by Richard Stroud and I in April, 2005, amidst one of several exploratory outings to records known sites and, aswell, to keep our eyes peeled in the hope that we might find some new ones! This was the first we came across; but when we found it, just one faint cup seemed noticeable on the southern edge of the small rounded stone; but after fifteen minutes of carefully rolling back the vegetation, this very well-preserved carving was eventually unveiled before us. It’s in quite excellent condition! The most notable part of the design are the two deep cup-markings, with the topmost cup looking half-surrounded by smaller cups on its southern edge.
There is also a well-preserved, though overgrown burial cairn (probably for one person) just a few yards west of this stone. This is just about impossible to see unless the heather’s been burnt back.
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.
