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.
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.
Follow the same directions for getting to the Black Hill Round Cairn. It’s less than 100 yards away – you can’t miss it!
Archaeology & History
This is a superb archaeological site — and it’s bloody huge! It’s big and it’s long and it sticks out a bit – which is pretty unique in this part of the Pennines, as most other giant cairns tend to be of the large round variety. Although the site was originally defined by Arthur Raistrick (1931) as a long barrow, J.J. Keighley (1981) told how, “it was found to be a round cairn imposed on a long cairn.” And it’s an old one aswell…
Near the SE end of the giant cairnClose-up of the main cist
More than 220 feet long and 80 feet in diameter at its widest southeastern end, as we walk along the length of the cairn to its northwestern edge, its main body averages (only!) 45 feet in diameter. Made up of tens of thousands of rocks and reported by Butterfield (1939) to have had an upright stone along its major axis, the “height varies from 4-8ft, but the cairn has been much despoiled and disturbed,” said Cowling in 1946. He also told how,
“Excavation revealed that almost in the centre of the mound were the remains of a cist made of roughly dressed stone flags and dry walling, covered by a large stone. Under a stone slab, laid on the floor of the cist, were fragments of (burnt and unburnt) bone and a small flint chipping.”
This is a very impressive site and deserving of more modern analysis. The alignment of the tomb, SE-NW, was of obvious importance to the builders, believed to be late-neolithic in character. The tomb aligns to two large hills in the far distance in the Forest of Bowland which we were unable to identity for certain. If anyone knows their names, please let us know!
Folklore
The older folk of Bradley village below here, tell of the danger of disturbing this old tomb. In a tale well-known to folklorists, it was said that when the first people went up to open this tomb for the very first time, it was a lovely day. But despite being warned, as the archaeologists began their dig, a great storm of thunder, lightning and hailstones erupted from a previously peaceful sky and disturbed them that much that they took off and left the old tomb alone. (I must check this up in the archaeo-records to see if owt’s mentioned about it.)
References:
Ashbee, Paul, The Earthen Long Barrow in Britain, Geo Books: Norwick 1984.
Butterfield, A., ‘Structural Details of a Long Barrow on Black Hill, Bradley Moor,’ in YAJ 34, 1939.
Cowling, E.T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
Keighley, J.J., ‘The Prehistoric Period,’ in Faull & Moorhouse’s West Yorkshire: An Archaeological Survey, I, WYMCC: Wakefield 1981.
Raistrick, Arthur, ‘Prehistoric Burials at Waddington and Bradley,’ in YAJ 30, 1931.
Various ways here. Best is probably taking the footpath onto Farnhill Moor a few hundred yards east of Kildwick Hall. Head for the cross-bearing Jubilee Tower (supposedly built upon an ancient cairn), NW, keep going past it uphill until you reach the walling 350 yards north, where a seat let’s you have a rest. Climb over the wall! Alternatively, walk eastwards and up through the steep but gorgeous birch-wooded slopes of Farnhill Wood; and as the moortop opens up before you, the great pile of rocks surmounts the skyline ahead. You can’t miss it! (NB: the spot cited on the OS-map as the cairn is in fact another site, 100 yards NW)
Archaeology & History
Its an awesome place in an awesome setting. You can see 360-degrees all round from this giant mass of rocks — something which was of obvious importance to the people who built it. If it had been placed 20-30 yards either side of here, that characteristic would not occur. Indeed, this is the only place anywhere on these moors where such a great view was possible. Important geomancy, as they say (or whatever modern term they give it these days).
Bradley Moor Cairn – looking down to the Long CairnSmall section of the old cairn
Although the tomb is still of considerable size (at least 100 feet across) and made up of thousands of stones, it has been severely robbed of stone in years passed, for walling and other building materials. A number of other small cairns scatter the heathlands a few hundred yards roundabout this central giant (though are hard to find in the deep heather); and there is a distinct cairn circle about 100 yards to the northwest, which has yet to be excavated. This cairn circle can be made out quite easily if you stand on the ridge about 30 yards west of here, looking down the slope. An then of course we have the equally huge Black Hill Long Cairn, less than 100 away, aligned northwest-southeast, which obviously had an important archaeological relationship with this giant round cairn. Also around this and the adjacent long cairn, numerous flints and scrapers have been found, showing humans have been here since at least the early neolithic period.
This site in particular gives me the distinct impression that it was the most important of the various sites upon these moors. It’s got a distinctly female flavour to it – and it’s old name of the Queen’s Cairn seems just right. Maybe it’s the fact that when I first visited the place, a great thunderstorm broke through the previously perfect skies, scattering lightning bolts all round for perhaps thirty minutes — so I stripped down and held my arms outwards, screaming to the skies in the pouring rain! Thereafter, no clouds appeared in the skies for the rest of the day. It was a brilliant welcome to the place!
References:
Cowling, E.T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
Keighley, J.J., ‘The Prehistoric Period,’ in Faull & Moorhouse’s West Yorkshire: An Archaeological Survey, I, WYMCC: Wakefield 1981.
Raistrick, Arthur, ‘Prehistoric Burials at Waddington and Bradley,’ in YAJ 119, 1936.
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.
The ‘Spring’ atop of Old Wifes Gill, on 1853 OS-map
From Hawes, take the B6255 road west-ish to Ribblehead, but only for 1km, where there’s the Cam Road track on your left. Walk on here, and keep going till you’re looking down the valley past the very last house (those of you who wanna take the Pennine Way from Hawes will end up in the same place). It’s one of the springs down the steep slope on your right! (check the attached link to the OS-map to work out which one you’re heading for)
Archaeology & History
Apart from a singular mention in place-name records, I have found no historical information (yet!) about this old water supply. It was one of the great sites of the cailleach in our Yorkshire hills: a truly ancient and heathen place, all but forgotten and lost in the mythic landscape of our past. And it’s a bittova dodgy spot getting right up to her down the rather steep hilly slope — but it’s truly well worth the trek!
The Old Wife’s Spring
When I first visited this place, we took off from Cam Fell’s western side and ambled up the tops until the land gave us the beauty of Snaizeholme valley, which had us stopping, dreaming and wanting more as we sought to find this forgotten well. Most of you would probably come from the easier side of Hawes and walk along the path on the southern-side of the valley, or p’raps even wander up Snaizeholme valley itself – but I’d recommend a walk along the tops. Tis much much better!
If you’ve got the 1:25,000-scale OS-map, you’ll see the ‘Old Wife’s Gill’ running down the hillside. Get over the wall by the track-side and stagger down the steep slope. You’ll pass a small spring about 70 yards down – but this aint the one (though I think originally the Old Wife came from much further up Dodd Fell itself). You’ve got another 75 yards to go down before you get to the main spring – but if you’re old and fragile, unfit or fat, you’ll struggle like hell here!
The waters emerge from this very steep slope, surrounded by plenty of thorns and thistles, on a part of the hill where the land itself is slowly coming away. After a long dry-spell no doubt, this might be a little more secure; but when we came here She’d been raining on-and-off like hell and the waters were a-plenty. It’s difficult to actually locate the exact spot where the water first appears – but like I said, it seems to have, long ago, come from much further up the hill. As the photos show, the water’s nice n’ clear, good-tasting, and then continues along its downward stream – known as the Old Wife’s Gill – until hitting the small river at the valley bottom.
The Old Wife’s Spring from below
The other site in this valley which assures us of the cailleach’s validity comes from the place-name a few hundred yards further up the valley, seemingly giving source to the valley river herself: a Lady Spring or well, whose form once emerged close to the gate of the Cold Well close by. The third part of the cailleach’s form – the maiden or virginal – has been lost as far as local myth and literary records go. But I’ve gotta come here a few more times to get an idea as to where this ‘lost’ water-source originally appeared. A number of streams run off the hills here into the curiously-named Snaizeholme valley (which etymologists assign to nowt more than a “place where twigs are” – which seems nonsensical), and as there’s been very little by way of human habitation screwing the land up, there’s a damn good chance we’ll find and recover the mythic history of the landscape here after a few more treks and dreams…
Other sites of similar mythic relevance which need checking include Carlow Hill (SD 770 858)at Stonehouse, Dentdale; and the great valley of Carlin Gill on the North Yorkshire/Cumbria border (SD 634 993 – Gambles 1995:39).
Take the single-track country lane between Farnhill and Low Bradley until you reach Hamblethorpe farmhouse. Where the birch woodland is on the slope going uphill, the field on the other side of the road, protected by walling, is where the stones are, just south of the farmhouse. There’s nowhere to park any car hereabouts, so it’s best walking here.
Archaeology & History
It seems that nothing has previously been written of this place. Hidden away at the top of the field we find two curious-looking standing stones: one nearly six-feet tall, and its companion about four-feet. They’re near the bottom of the slope from the giant Round Cairn and Long Cairn tombs of Low Bradley Moor, several hundred yards to the east— and were it not for the fact that they have a distinctive Castlerigg-like appearance about them, perhaps I wouldn’t have given them a second chance. Curious earthworks are in the same field, to which written records also appear silent. Tis a lovely little spot…
