Tag: North Yorkshire

Sheep Scar Cairn, Giggleswick, North Yorkshire

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Cairn:  OS Grid Reference – SD 80678 66436

Getting Here

Paul Hornby on the old mound

Follow the same directions as if you’re visiting the Apronful of Stones giant cairn, above Giggleswick.  Walk past the giant cairn for a coupla hundred yards until you reach the large section of fallen walling, which you can clamber over and head towards the small rise of the Sheep Scar enclosure 100 yards in front of you.  Walk to the far end of this walled enclosure and look down the slope to your left, for 50-60 yards where you’ll see a small rocky mound rising above the edge of the hollow footpath.  That’s it!

Archaeology & History

This lovely old overgrown prehistoric cairn seems to one of what were once the remains of many other old tombs that scattered this grassy rocky plain, on the western ridge between Stainforth and Settle.  Although there are what seems to be the remnants of others nearby, this particular stone heap, its edges buried beneath centuries of earth, is a fine little-known specimen that deserves attention after so long a period in the sleep of ignorant moderns.  The cairn is found within an area that Harry Speight (1892) called the “Field of the Dead”, where he came across “traces and remains of human graves which carry us back to the far dim ages of unwritten history.”  Whether he saw this particular cairn rising up above the edge of the old track that winds up from Borrins in the valley below, he doesn’t say — but I’d be amazed if the diligent Speight missed it!

The overgrown cairn, looking NW
Cairn centre, with Sheep Scar enclosure above

Standing more than a yard high, when Paul Horby and I paced this old ruin, it measured 10 yards by 12 yards across — though so much loose and overgrown stone was beneath the surface that it could be much bigger.  The top of the cairn had come loose, perhaps explored by some antiquarian in times gone by, exposing a considerable mass of small rounded and misshapen rocks, typical of such constructions.  When Harry Speight found the place more than a hundred years earlier, he described the situation much as we’d found it, telling of,

“other mounds of similar and smaller dimensions within the same area, some of which have been examined, but others do not appear to have been disturbed.  Many of the barrows or ‘raises’ have at some time or other been carelessly dug into in the hope of finding valuables, and as doubtless in most cases nothing was found but rude chests or coffins, containing bones, these were tossed aside and no record of them deemed worthy of preservation.”

A situation we find still prevalent thanks to the ignorance of some archaeologists in some regions of Yorkshire to this day (despite what they tell folk).  We could see nothing of any note in our brief look at this old cairn, except that it had the usual hallmarks of prehistory in its form, probably Bronze Age.  Possible remains of other similar-sized cairns can be seen a little further up the slope on the northeastern edges of the enclosure.  The prehistoric Sheep Scar Cairn Circle and other ancient remains scatter the fields all round here; something indicated by the place-name Borrins found in the woods below the ridge, meaning simply, ‘burial place.’ (Smith 1956: 57-8)

References:

  1. Smith, A.H., English Place-Name Elements – volume 1, Cambridge University Press 1956.
  2. Speight, Harry, The Craven and Northwest Yorkshire Highlands, Elliott Stock: London 1892.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Rye Loaf Hill, Settle, North Yorkshire

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Cairn:  OS Grid Reference – SD 86419 63309

Also Known as:

  1. Inglehow

Getting Here

Triangulation & cairn atop of Rye Loaf Hill on a truly foggy eve

Best way is to take the Settle to Kirkby Malham road: a tiny little thing running steep from Settle up and around the hills, making sure you don’t miss the turn-off to Kirkby and head down to Airton instead.  About 100 yards along from the road-junction to Kirkby, there’s a small copse of trees and a gate just before it.  Walk up through that and head right to the top of the nice hill a mile or so ahead of you to the north.  It can be boggy, slippy and well good!  A decent Barmy Bennett expedition this way lies!  Get to the top of the hill and you can’t miss the cairn!

Archaeology & History

First shown on the 1771 Greenwood map, this is another intriguing little-known antiquity in our Yorkshire hills.  It’s intriguing as the precise age and nature of the site doesn’t appear to have been ascertained.  On top of this lovely rounded hill is not only a stunning view for many miles in all directions (unless you climb it on a very cloudy foggy day, like we did!), but the rock-pile which someone in recent years has turned into a wind-break has been taken from a much larger, and much older rock-pile on the very summit.

The cairn stands about a yard tall at the highest and measures roughly 12 yards in diameter, but the edges of the site seem to disappear further beneath the peat and vegetation on the hilltop.  A section in the middle of the cairn has obviously been dug into, probably to create the stone shelter on its southern side, but it also gives the impression of having been dug into by treasure-seekers in the past — similar to the trenches found in the Snowden Crags cairn circle, the Great Skirtful of Stones and other prehistoric tombs.

The site has been marked on Ordnance Survey maps as a simple marker cairn (non-antiquated writing on the maps), but I have strong suspicions after visiting this peak that the cairn in question is a lot older than has previously been assumed.  So I contacted local archaeologist Robert White and asked if he knew of any archaeological data about the cairn, but he said there was nothing that he knew.  However, an additional piece of information that adds potential to the antiquity of the cairn came from the awesome pen of Harry Speight (1895) who told that,

“The original name of this eminence is Inglehow, which suggests like Ingleborough and ancient look-out post or beacon hill.”

The suffix how or howe is well-known to place-name students in northern England and beyond as a burial mound or tumulus.  We must be cautious however, for as Gelling (1988) says, the word “is frequently applied to a tumulus, but it can refer to a natural hill.” But Speight’s idea that the name may have had something to do with beacons was mentioned — albeit without reference to Rye Loaf Hill, whose history and features he ignored — in Thomas Whitaker’s (1878) huge survey, where he wrote:

“In this parish was an immemorial custom, continued within the memory of many persons yet alive, of kindling fires on the tops of the surrounding hills on St. Laurence’s Eve, the 9th of August.  This night was called the Kennel or Kennelk night; and the tradition of the place is, that the fires were intended as a memorial of the beacons kindled by the Saxons to alarm their countrymen on the sudden approach of the Danes.”

The parish in question that Whitaker described was Giggleswick, which is right next door to Settle, in whose parish Rye Loaf Hill lives.

On the southern edge of Rye Loaf are a couple of other archaeological place-names that need looking at.  We have a couple of ‘Stone Haws’, which are probably cairns, close to which we find extensive evidence of human activity at some time in the past.  But close to one of these piles of stones is another, far more fabled rock whose history appears to have long since been neglected: the Dragon Stone of Scosthrop Moor.  Never heard of it?  That’s not surprising…

References:

  1. Gelling, Margaret, Signposts to the Past, Phillimore: Chichester 1988.
  2. Smith, A.H., English Place-Name Elements – volume 1, Cambridge University Press 1956.
  3. Speight, Harry, Tramps and Drives in the Craven Highlands, Elliot Stock: London 1895.
  4. Whitaker, Thomas Dunham, The History and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven in the County of York, (3rd edition) Joseph Dodgson: Leeds 1878.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Kirkmoor Beck Farm, Fylingthorpe, North Yorkshire

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Cairn Circle:  OS Grid Reference – NZ 9253 0306

Also Known as:

  1. Kirk Moor Beck Farm
  2. Kirkmoorbeck Farm

Archaeology & History

Plan of Kirkmoorbeck circle (after Radley 1969)

Although originally classed as a stone circle, this site should more accurately be described as a form of cairn circle, as burial remains were found in the middle.  This is noted by both Aubrey Burl (2000) and John Barnatt (1989), who thought it to be a kerbed cairn.  It’s only a small circle aswell, about 5 yards across and is found not far from other burial cairns in the neighbourhood.

First discovered around Easter in 1965 by the then owners of the farm, Mr & Mrs K. Jarman, parts of the circle were dug into by their children, who subsequently informed Sheffield City Museum of their finds.  Subsequently, the circle was then described in a short article by J. Radley (1969) in ‘Notes on Archaeological Finds’ for the Yorkshire archaeology group.  He wrote:

“The circle is 15ft in diameter and is made of ten stones which protrude a few inches above the turf cover.  Inside the circle the ground is slightly concave.  A two-feet wide trench was dug across the circle and a large stone was revealed at the centre. On the stone was a fragmented urn, remains of a cremation, and one fragment of flint. There are signs of burning on the stone, and also under the stone, but no other burial has been discovered.  The whole burial was so shallow that it was in the root zone of the overlying grass.  The survival of many pieces of bone in such a wet location suggests that the area must have been protected by a mound until quite recent times…

“The urn is too fragmentary to be restored.  Of the hundreds of fragments, only a few retain both faces, and these are generally one centimetre thick.  The urn appears to have been made of a fine clay with large grits and has a smooth brown surface marked in places with impressions of blades of grass. The urn may have been biconical in form with bands of horizontal grooves around the upper part, with vertical grooves below them.”

References:

  1. Barnatt, John, The Stone Circles of Britain – volume 2, British Archaeological Reports: Oxford 1989.
  2. Burl, Aubrey, The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, Yale University Press 2000.
  3. Radley, J., “A Stone Circle on Kirkmoor Beck Farm, Fylingdales,” in Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, part 167, volume 42, 1969.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Sheep Scar Enclosure, Giggleswick, North Yorkshire

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Enclosure:  OS Grid Reference – SD 80648 66374

Getting Here

Aerial view of enclosure

To reach here, follow the same directions to get to the Apronful of Stones giant cairn.  Walk on the footpath past the cairn for about 200 yards until you reach a large gap where the old walling has collapsed.  Go through this and walk across the limestone rocks, towards the small rocky hillock rising up 100 hundred yards in front to your east (not the more rounded one to the north).  That’s it!

Archaeology & History

This is a most intriguing find, and one to which I can find no other literary reference (though I aint checked Brayshaw’s Giggleswick).  An undeniably large natural hillock has been modified and added to by people at some considerable time long ago and at some considerable effort!  Measuring more than 47 yards (43m) roughly east-west, and 21 yards (19m) north-south, the most definable man-made remains here is the length of elliptical walling on the southern and western edges.  The internal circumference of the enclosure measures roughly 113 yards (103m) all round the edges.  The northern and eastern sides of the hill would appear to be mainly natural, but seem to have been modified a little — not unlike the mass of settlements and enclosures a few miles to the east, like Torlery Edge, Lantern Holes and others around Malham Moor and district.

The site needs professional assessment: first to ascertain its period (which seems Iron Age on first impression, but could be much later), and second to ascertain its nature.  On the ridges close by we find a veritable mass of archaeological remains, ranging between Bronze Age to Medieval in nature.  The giant Apronful of Stones is only 172 yards (158m) south; the Sheep Scar cairn circle 156 yards (143m) northwest; and one of the remaining Sheep Scar cairns only 58 yards (53m) away.  And hopefully when we return to the place next week (fingers crossed!), we’ll be able to get some more photos of the walling you can see that define some edges of the site…

…to be continued…

References:

  1. Brayshaw, Thomas & Robinson, Ralph M., A History of the Ancient Parish of Giggleswick, Halton & Co.: London 1932.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Feizor Thwaite, Lawkland, North Yorkshire

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Ring Cairn:  OS Grid Reference – SD 79798 67473

Getting Here

Feizor Thwaite circle (after ‘QDanT’)

From Feizor village, take the dirt-track south that cuts up between the two cottages and walk onto the level.  From here, the walling bends round and a small cut runs up the slope on your left.  Go up here and onto the top, bearing left again when you reach the footpath near the top of the slope.  Walk along here until the hills open up before you and less than 100 yards along, just on the right-hand side of the path, you’ll notice the overgrown outline of a ring just by the side.  Don’t miss it (like I did!).

Archaeology & History

Danny, Paul and I visited here a few weeks back on a fine sunny day and, my attention caught by some nearby rocks that got mi nose twitching, I just about walked past the place until Danny called me back and said, “Oy – ‘ave y’ not seen this?”  Right under my nose no less!

Feizor Thwaite circle, looking northwest

The site’s a little known circular monument east of Feizor village, less than a mile northwest of the cairnfield above Stackhouse (where lives the Apronful of Stones and other prehistoric friends).  Marked on modern OS-maps as an ‘enclosure,’ the site here is in fact an overgrown cairn circle, typical in size and form of the ones found at nearby Borrins Top, Burley Moor, Askwith Moor and elsewhere in the Pennines.  Measuring (from outer edge to outer edge) 66 feet 6 inches east-west and 59 feet north-south, the remains here consist of a raised embankment of stones, encircling an inner flatter region consisting of many smaller stones beneath the overgrowth of grasses and vegetation.  Locals told me that the some of the cairns up here were explored early in the 20th century by a local man called Tot Lord, but I’m unsure whether he looked at this one.

There are a couple of other smaller circular remains on the same grassland plain, clearly visible from aerial imagery, along with other crop-marks of human activity on this part of the Feizor Thwaite landscape.  More antiquarian analysis could do with focussing here to see what can be found!

Links:

  1. Feizor Thwaite & other nearby prehistoric sites
  2. Feizor Thwaite Computer Art

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Feizor, Lawkland, North Yorkshire

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Standing Stone (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – SD 78570 67177

Archaeology & History

Feizor on 1851 map
Feizor on 1851 map

There have been no previous archaeological reference to this site (until now), which was included in early place-names records (Smith 1961) and was also highlighted on the first Ordnance Survey map of the region around 1851.  Probably as a result of the archaeological lacking, the upright stone has finally succumbed to the destructive actions of modern man. When we asked the farmer if he knew owt about any standing stone here, he said he knew “nowt abaat that.”

Feizor stone stump
and from another angle

All that can be seen today is the very small stump of stone, just visible above ground level, in the middle of the field.  It’s not easy to spot either, as the grasses grow over what’s left.  But we found the slim remnant of the stump embedded in exactly the spot marked on old and modern maps, measuring 24 inches in length and just 4 inches across at the widest, with what seemed like worn rounded edges at either end.  We were unable to ascertain the depth of the remaining stone in the ground. The stone looks simply as if it’s been snapped at the base.  We have no idea how tall this standing stone was.

If any local people know anything more about this stone, or have any old photos, we’d love to hear from you — and would obviously give due credit for any help on this matter.

References:

  1. Smith, A.H., The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire – volume 6, Cambridge University Press 1961.

Links:

  1. Feizor stone remnants & walks to nearby prehistoric sites

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian 


Eller Edge (429), Pock Stones Moor, Thruscross, North Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 0902 6150

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.429 (Boughey & Vickerman)
Eller Edge stone 429

Getting Here

A slight walk to get here.  Follow the same directions as if you’re going to the Eller Edge 431 carving.  Once here, walk west as if you’re going into the middle of the field, keeping your eyes peeled about 20 yards along for a small-ish rounded stone with nice colours of lichen amidst the grasses.  If you’re patient, you’ll find it soon enough!

Archaeology & History

This is another simple cup-marked stone on the grassland ridge overlooking higher Wharfedale.  The carving here is a little clearer and more well-defined than that of its close neighbours, with a number of simple cups visible on its rounded surface.  We counted seven such cups on our cloudy-day visit, but Boughey & Vickerman (2003) thought there might be a little more, describing the stone simply:

from another angle
B & V’s drawing

“Small lichen-covered rough grit rock.  About eight cups and two depressions.”

A rubbing of this small stone (as practiced by English Heritage and rock art students alike) would prove useful in bringing out any other ingredients in the ancient design.  And whilst you’re in this field, have a look at the curious Spiral Stone and some of the other cup-markings close by.

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.

Links:

  1. Eller Edge Rock Art – more notes & images

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Eller Edge (424), Pock Stones Moor, Thruscross, North Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 08973 61487

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.424 (Boughey & Vickerman)
Eller Edge carving 424
Eller Edge carving 424

Archaeology & History

A slight walk to get here, but well worth it once you arrive!  Follow the same directions as if you’re going to the Eller Edge 426 carving.  Once you reach this stone, notice the larger rounded rock about 20 yards to your west, a bit further down the field.  You can’t really miss it!

Archaeology & History

A large rounded stone just on the meadows before it begins to slope more steeply downhill, there are several of those large natural ‘bowls’ that we see on a lot of cup-marked and not-so-cup-marked stones in our northern hills.  These basins or bowls may, at times, may have had significance for our ancestors, but it’s the cluster of cup-markings on this stone which are of importance to us here.  There are perhaps as many as a dozen cup-marks here, all very well worn, and mostly to be seen on the eastern sides of the rock.  When I came here with Paul Hornby and QDanT a few months back, the cloud cover stayed with us all day, so I didn’t get any decent images of the carving.  Ne’er mind…

Close-up of faint cups

The stone was described by Boughey & Vickerman (2003) simply as:

“Very large, uneven, rough grit rock with face with scooped-out areas sloping down to grass.  Eleven possible cups and six basins.”

A plain carving, perhaps only of interest to the fanatics amongst you.  But if you do visit here, check out carving 432, 431, and others in the same field.

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.

Links:

  1. Eller Edge Rock Art – more notes & images

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Eller Edge (432), Pock Stones Moor, Thruscross, North Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 09078 61479

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.432 (Boughey & Vickerman)
Carving 432, close to the wall

Getting Here

A slight walk to get here.  Follow the same directions as if you’re going to the Eller Edge 426 carving, but as you reach the field edge, walk up the slope (in the field itself) along the side of the wall.  You’ll pass rudimentary Carving 431 and about 30 yards further uphill this little fella will catch your eye!  You can’t really miss it.

Archaeology & History

Another basic cup-marked stone that’s probably only gonna be of interest to the purists amongst you.  A single cup-marking sits on the edge of a small patch of old dark lichen, although the rock art students Boughey & Vickerman (2003) reckon there could be another two on here—but I aint so sure misself.  The stone was described by them simply as:

“Medium-sized rectanguar rock of medium gritstone, with vertical edges except for finely striated sloping W side.  One cup near possibly quarried edge and perhaps two more.”

Single faint cup-mark

Another single cup-marked stone of the same size, type and quality as this one can be found on another stone not far from this stone, which aint in the Boughey & Vickerman survey.  There’s also evidence of ancient lines of walling close by, but with little surface clues as to its age.

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.

Links:

  1. Eller Edge Rock Art – more notes & images

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Guisecliff Wood (629), Bewerley, North Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 16415 63565

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.629 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

A box of cup-and-rings!

Takes a bitta finding this one – especially a this time of year when the bracken’s high – but it’s worth the walk.  You’re probably best finding your way to the open-air carving on the slopes above Westcliff Farm, the Guisecliff Wood 626 carving (it’s pretty easy to find).  From here, walk eastwards across the top of the two fields until you hit the old gate that take you back into the woods.  Now it gets difficult!  Walk less than 100 yards in the same direction, if you’re lucky, along the small footpath that runs pretty level through the trees, keeping your eyes peeled for a large sloping rock above you.  I’d say that it’s probably best to start checking the relevant rocks (large ones) after 50 yards in the trees, just to be on the safe side.  If you aint been here before it’s probably best to check it out at the end of Winter or during Spring time.  Good luck!

Archaeology & History

As noted by several people in our visit here the other day, some aspects of this carving are similar in design to the Tree of Life Stone on the eastern edge of Askwith Moor, 10 miles south of here.  But the features on this large carved rock have intriguing elements of their own here: not least of which is the large square ‘box’ into which a cluster of otherwise normal cup-and-rings are enclosed.  It’s a unique feature in prehistoric carvings in this part of the world — although such ‘box’ motifs can be seen further north at Dod Law in Northumberland.

The fainter cup-and-rings
Boughey & Vickerman’s 2003 drawing

There are two distinct sections of carvings on the stone, both of which have a similar tree-motif patterns, but the boxed one grabs your attention more once you’ve sat with the stone for a while. The other small cluster of cups are a little more difficult to notice, but once you see them they almost grow into life!  You can just make out the surrounding rings and lines around some of these fainter cups, which I tried to capture in the photos (but without much success).

Our visit here didn’t pass without some voicing the thought that ‘box’ section could have been added at a much later date — perhaps a Victorian addition?  But we could be way off the mark with that one!

There’s every likelihood of other carvings being found in and above the woodlands here, though any further exploratory excursions here can wait till winter time, as the Nature’s summer growth here is considerable and covers most of the rocks in green.  The carving was first described in Boughey & Vickerman’s (2003) text as a

“Very large rock with extensive flat surface on which there seems to be two separate designs.  Seven cups are joined in a branch-like pattern, the whole within a square groove from which the ‘stem’ of the branch just protrudes; away from this is an approximately linear feature with three cups enclosed by linked rings at one end and then six more cups with a partial ring.”

If you’re a rock art enthusiast, or a real healthy heathen, this site is well worth checking out!

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.

Links:

  1. More images of Guisecliff Wood carvings

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian