Tag: prehistoric art

Comet Stone, Cliffe Castle, Keighley, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 0577 4210

Also known as:

  1. Cliffe Castle Stone
  2. Grubstone Ridge Carving
  3. Keighley Market Stone
  4. Carving no.216 (Hedges)
  5. Carving no.351 (Boughey & Vickerman)
  6. Upwood Hall Stone

Getting Here

Go to the Cliffe Castle Museum on the outskirts of Keighley town centre (dead easy to find with car park to rear) and explore the museum! You’ll find it eventually!

Archaeology & History

Comet Stone, Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley
Comet Stone, Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley

This lovely-looking carving has been on a bit of walkabout over the last hundred years or so! We’re not quite sure exactly where it first lived, but old records tell that it was found upon the Grubstones Ridge, which is a small section of the moor around and/or between the Great Skirtful of Stones giant cairn and the curious Roms Law, or Grubstones Circle, both on the very tops of Burley Moor (most folk call think of it as just another section of Ilkley Moor). Here it lived (approx grid reference SE 138 446) for several thousand years until, many centuries later, in the mid-19th century, one of them there christian chaps came along – y’ know the sorts.  He was the reverend J.A. Busfield and came to live upon the heathen edge of our Rombald’s Moor at a great house called Upwood. Like many of these weird people, he took a bit of a shine to our ancient relics and, amidst one of his sojourns to the Grubstones one day, came upon this multiple-ringed stone lying amidst the heather, close to the old circle of Roms Law.  Liking it so much, he thought he’d have it as an ornament in the grounds of his hall at Upwood, on the southern edges of the moor overlooking Riddlesden and Keighley — and there it stayed, living quite comfortably, until 1925.

It then spent nearly fifty years living enclosed in the huge abode of Keighley Museum until, in 1971, it was presented by a certain Mr. R.W. Robinson of the same establishment, to Keighley Council, who thought in their weird ways to lean “it against a pile of rocks on the pavement of Bow Street, near Keighley Bus Station, with a small plaque,” telling of its tale and of other cup-and-rings nearby. And there it stayed until more recent years, when it was returned back to the Cliffe Castle Museum – safe, quiet and looked after each night!

Drawing of the carving
Drawing of the carving
Cowling’s early drawing

It’s a lovely, almost archetypal carving: a simple cup surrounded by four complete rings, with a ‘tail’ coming off the edge, similar to the image of a comet flying through the skies – which is, perhaps, what this carving represented. Of course, it could have been something completely different!

The region where this stone was located was an important area for the dead in ancient times – a motif that’s common to many cup-and-rings – and it seems probable that the stone itself was once part of a tomb, though we seem to have no record substantiating this. The carving was highlighted by William Cudworth as being in Upwood on a map dated 1847-51. The next description of it was by Arthur Raistrick in 1936. John Hedges (1986) listed it as stone-216 in his survey; then Boughey & Vickerman (2003) re-list it as stone 351.

NOTE – Don’t confuse this carving with another that is held in the same museum here, the Cliffe Castle or Baildon Moor 144 carving. Well worth having a look at!

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Leeds 2003.
  2. Cowling, Eric T., Rombald’s Way, Otley 1946.
  3. Hedges, John, The Carved Rocks on Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
  4. Raistrick, Arthur, ‘Cup-and-Ring Marked Rocks of West Yorkshire,’ in YAJ, 1936.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Hope Farm, Baildon, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone (lost):  OS Grid Reference – SE 142 396

Archaeology & History

Listed in Boughey & Vickerman’s (2003) survey as ‘stone 186,’ I first came across a reference to this carving when I was young, in a short article by Sidney Jackson (1964) in his Cartwright Hall archaeology journal.  A letter was sent to Mr Jackson in 1963 by a Mr Bernard Stubbs of Baildon, who wrote:

“This morning I visited Hope Farm, Baildon, where Mr Jim Bell, the farmer, told me of a cup-and-ring boulder which he had discovered while digging a hole to bury a sheep, in the polt of land at the rear of the farmhouse… He stated that the hole was covered with cup-and-ring markings.  Unfortunately, the hole has been filled and concreted over.”

And no one has seen it since then!  Damn!  Recently we discovered a cup-marked stone carved on a now-upright stone in old walling in one of the fields immediately west of the farm, but it’s obviously a different one from that described in Mr Stubbs’ letter.  There are several other carvings in this region that are not in the official records, but this particular ‘lost’ stone remains lost for the time being!

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.
  2. Jackson, Sidney, ‘New Cup-and-Ring Boulder,’ in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 9:1, 1964.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Hirst Woods, Saltaire, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone (destroyed?):  OS Grid Reference – SE 129 379

Archaeology & History

Over the years, many of us have looked for this site but without any success.  If it hasn’t actually been destroyed, it could be in someone’s garden wall, probably without them even knowing about it.  Indeed, even the grid reference given here is only an approximation (mine differs from the one cited by Boughey & Vickerman, who put the carving closer to SE 126 381) and the stone could have been a few hundred yards either side of here.  The main description of it comes from a letter written by a Mr T.P. Noble in 1964, which was cited in Sidney Jackson’s article ‘Hirst Wood Cup-and-Ring Boulder,’ in Bradford’s Cartwright Hall archaeology journal, where Mr Noble wrote:

“Mr Cooper, who built these houses (Hirst Wood housing estate) about 1935, once told me that there was a perfect example of a cup-and-ring stone here, but later, when he came to search for it, he couldn’t find it.  It appears it must have been removed and possibly broken-up when the foundations of the houses were excavated.”

Of course, as we don’t know the exact whereabouts of the carving, nor have we been left with an illustration of the stone, it’s difficult to say whether the description given by the great archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler in 1958, is referring to the same carving.  Wheeler told us that one day in his childhood when he was out walking with his father, R.M. Wheeler, they came across a seemingly unknown prehistoric carving, saying,

“On one memorable day in the woods beyond Saltaire, we found an unrecorded cup-marked stone (later, I believe, recorded by my father in a British Association Handbook)” – that work being the Handbook to Bradford and Neighbourhood (1900), edited by R.M. Wheeler.

Naathen…if there are any people from the Hirst Wood area reading this and who might know of an old carved rock stuck in some old garden walls nearby, let us know.  You’ll be credited as the person who re-discovered this long lost carving – and we can get the story in the local newspaper.

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.
  2. Jackson, Sidney, ‘Hirst Wood Cup-and-Ring Boulder,’ in the Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 9:2, February 1964.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Grey Stone, Harewood, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 3148 4307

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.399 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

Various ways to get here, but I suppose the easist is by walking along the path just above the woods from the main A61 road, where there’s the junction turn-off to Wike.  You have to walk perhaps 1000 yards until eventually, a couple of hundred yards up the slope to your left (south) you’ll see the boulder stuck in the field.  You’re there!

Archaeology & History

The Grey Stone, Harewood
The Grey Stone, Harewood

Described first by Cowling & Hartley in 1960, this multiple-ringed carving gives the distinct impression that it aint quite as old as our more traditional cup-and-rings on the moors west and north of here – but I s’ppose we’ll never know for sure.  There isn’t a central cup to this concentric-ringed carving, which is quite unusual, and which is why I get the impression that it’s from a later archaeological period.  However, saying that, there are several other faint cup-markings on the southwest and east-faces of the boulder (which I forgot to photograph when I was there – idiot that I am!).  Boughey and Vickerman (2003) illustrate as many as 18 other cup-marks on the rock surface – which they list as stone 399 in their survey.

Although there seems to be no folklore attached to this isolated carving, rock-art authority Graeme Chappell noted how “the midwinter full moon set behind Almscliffe Crags at its extreme northerly setting point in Bronze Age times” from this Grey Stone.

The archaeologist S.A. Moorhouse (1981) also pointed out how some of the many Grey Stones (which usually means ‘a boundary stone’, sometimes very ancient ones) found in northern England, derive their name from the word har, which “can also mean ‘grey, hoar,’ used to describe natural boulders, possibly with cup-and-ring markings” – just as we have here!

References:

  1. Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Milverton 2001.
  2. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.
  3. Cowling, E.T. & Hartley, C.E., ‘A Ring-Marked Rock: The Grey Stone,’ in YAJ 1960.
  4. Moorhouse, S.A., ‘Boundaries,’ in Faull & Moorhouse’s West Yorkshire: An Archaeological Survey, volume 2, 1981.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Map Stone, Ilkley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 12961 46396

Also known as:

  1. Carving No.137 (Hedges)
  2. Carving No.295 (Boughey & Vickerman)
  3. Planet Stone
  4. The Planets Rock

Getting Here

Map Stone, looking east
Map Stone, looking east

Best visited in winter and spring – thereafter the vegetation can hide it a little – but even then, it’s not too hard to find.  Start from the Cow & Calf Hotel and walk across the road onto the moor, and head over as if you’re gonna walk above the Cow & Calf Rocks, onto the moorland proper.  When you’ve gone a few hundred yards, walk up the slope (there are several footpaths – you can take your choice).  Once on the ridge on top of the moor proper, you’ll see the Haystack Rock: it’s on the same ridge, right near where the moor drops down the slope about 250 yards west of here, just about next to the footpath that runs along the edge.  Look around!

Archaeology & History

Unlike some folk who’ve seen this old stone, I find this carving superb.  Its one of my favourites up here!  Its alternative name – the Planet Stone – perhaps lends you to expect something more, but this is down to the astronomer who thought this was some type of heavenly image (which is most unlikely).  I prefer to call it the ‘Map Stone’ because the correlates this carving has with indigenous aboriginal cup-and-rings is impressive and — to Aborigines anyway — would have all the hallmarks of a map.  But not a ‘map’ in the traditional sense of modern humans.  The incidence of cups and rings linked by curvaceous lines, typifies routes between water-holes or settlement spots made by ancestral beings — which is just what we find at this carving here.  These ancestral beings need to be seen in a quite mythic sense: they may be creation deities (giants, gods, etc), animal spirits, the routes of shaman spirits, or other expressions of homo-religiosus.

Map Stone (note the carved line along the very edge of the rock)
…and again from another angle

In the Map Stone here, we see that the very edge of the rock (fig.2 & 3) is ‘encircled’, perhaps (and I say perhaps) symbolic of the edge of the world.  The lines and rings upon the top of the rock may symbolize journeys to and from important places.  Another impression I get of this carving, with the “map” idea, is that the large pecked diamond-shaped ‘cup’ near the middle of the carving is a large body of water around which the archaic routeways passed.  The next time anyone visits this stone, have a look at it with this idea in mind.  Its simple, straightforward and makes sense (mind you – that doesn’t mean to say it’s right!).

The first account I’ve found of this comes from the pen of J. Romilly Allen (1882), where this stone “measuring 5ft 3in by 5ft, and 1ft 9in high” was described thus:

“On its upper surface, which is nearly horizontal, are carved thirteen cups, varying in diameter from 2 to 2½ in, eleven of which are surrounded by rings.  There is also an elaborate arrangment of connecting grooves.”

Although we can only work our nine cup-and-rings here today, Mr Allen seemed suitably impressed with this old carving. Stan Beckensall (1999) seemed to have a good feel of this design too, describing it thus:

“Two thirds of the surface of this earthfast sandstone have been used in a design that partly encloses the marked part of the rock with long curvilinear grooves along its edge, and the inner grooves link single rings around cups.  The effect is one of inter-connection and fluidity.”

The Map, or Planets Stone (after Hedges 1986)
The Map, or Planets Stone (after Hedges 1986)

The Map Stone was also looked at to examine the potential for Alexander Thom’s proposal of a megalithic inch: a unit of measure speculated to have been used in neolithic and Bronze Age times for the carving of cup-and-ring stones.  Using nine other carvings on these moor as samples, Alan Davies (1983, 1988) explored this hypothesis and gave the idea his approval.  However the selectivity of his data, not only in the carvings chosen, throws considerable doubt on the idea.  Unfortunately the idea doesn’t hold water.  The ‘geometry’ in the size of cup-and-rings relates more to the biometrics of the human hand and not early scientific geometry, sadly….

References:

  1. Allen, J.R., ‘Prehistoric Rock Sculptures of Ilkley,’ in Journal British Arch. Assoc., 35, 1879.
  2. Allen, J.R., ‘Notice of Sculptured Rocks near Ilkley, with some Remarks on Rocking Stones,’ in Journal British Arch. Assoc., 38, 1882.
  3. Allen, J.R., ‘Cup and Ring Sculptures on Ilkley Moor,’ in Reliquary Illus. Archaeology, 2, 1896.
  4. Beckensall, Stan, British Prehistoric Rock Art, Tempus: Stroud 1999.
  5. Boughey, K.J.S. & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Exeter 2003.
  6. Collyer, Robert & Turner, J.H., Ilkley: Ancient and Modern, William Walker: Otley 1885.
  7. Cowling, E.T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
  8. Davis, Alan, ‘The Metrology of Cup & Ring Carvings near Ilkley in Yorkshire,’ Science Journal 25, 1983.
  9. Davies, Alan, ‘The Metrology of Cup and Ring Carvings,’ in Ruggles, C., Records in Stone, Cambridge 1988.
  10. Hedges, John, The Carved Rocks on Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
Alan Davies' image of the carving - with carved 'lake' near centre
Alan Davies’ image of the carving – with carved ‘lake’ near centre

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Wycoller Bridge, Trawden, Lancashire

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Cup-Marked Stones:  OS Grid Reference – SD 931 393

Getting Here

Easy enough to find once you’ve actually got to Wycoller.  By car, the only real way to get here is from Colne, through the village of Winewall, and along the Wycoller road, which runs to a dead end.  Once here, the old packhorse bridge with these cup-marks on it can’t be missed!

Archaeology & History

Wycoller Bridge's cup-marked stones (after Jackson, 1962)
Wycoller Bridge’s cup-marked stones (after Jackson, 1962)

Weird one this! On the famous packhorse bridge close to the old hall, four of the stones have cup-markings etched onto them. It seems that at least three of the carvings are archaic; cups on one of them seems somewhat deep and appears to be medieval. A short article describing them was in the Bradford Cartwright Hall Archaeology Bulletin (1962) where they were just as puzzled about them.  In 1979, J.A. Heginbottom described them in his survey on the prehistoric rock-art of upper Calderdale.  The stones on which the cups were carved may have been taken from a prehistoric tomb on the edge of the moor further up the valley from here.

Folklore

Just next to this bridge is another, much older one, known locally as the Clapper or Druid’s Bridge which perhaps has some bearing on the curious cup-markings.  Legend tells that this older construction was so called “because legend has it that it led to an amphitheatre where the druids held human sacrifices” – and the field just up from here (to the southwest) was known as the Dripping Stone Field.  Hmmmmm…..

References:

  1. Bentley, John, Portrait of Wycoller, Nelson Local History Society 1975.
  2. Heginbottom, J.A., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Upper Calderdale, unpublished report: 1979.
  3. Jackson, Sidney, ‘Cup-Marked Stones at Wycoller,’ in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, October 1962.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Woman Stone, Askwith Moor, North Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 17103 50541

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.520 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

Takes a bit of finding this – but if you like your rock art, it’s worth the search!  You can follow directions for the getting to the Man Stone then, when you reach it, look to the near horizon to the east.  Get to the bottom of the sloping hillside where a large rounded boulder sits and walk up the slope about 10 yards.  Look around here cos you’re very close.

Woman Stone carving
Carving highlighted in chalk

Alternatively, from the Askwith Moor Road, follow the path to the triangulation pillar on Shooting House Hill.  Keep going for another 100 yards and check a small path to your left (south).  Follow this down until you get to the top of the slope.  Go to the bottom of the slope and look around!

This carving is best checked out in winter and early spring: if you go here in summer & autumn there’s bracken covering the entire site & you’ll never find it!

Archaeology & History

Drawing by Inmaculada Ibanez-Sanchez

This stone was first discovered by Graeme Chappell and I during one of our many ambling explorations here in the early 1990s and was first mentioned in my Old Stones of Elmet (pp.149-152).  Marija Gimbutas would have loved this seemingly matriarchal-looking cup-and-ring carving, suggestive of many Mother Goddess images she found across Europe – hence its title!

Woman Stone design (after Boughey & Vickerman)
Woman Stone design (after Boughey & Vickerman)

I don’t think that the old-school archaeological types would lower themselves to say such a thing, but as I aint one of them I’m quite confident in saying that this carving does seem to be a pictorial representation of a female figure: one of the earliest of its kind in the British Isles? (check its nearby male compatriot, the Man Stone – a distinctly human figure and one of the earliest of its kind in the British Isles)  Very close by we are left with old place-name remnants pointing directly at the presence of pre-christian goddess remains in the mythic landscape – an issue I’ll expand on in the near future.

In the survey by more recent rock art students Boughey & Vickerman (2003), their illustration of the carving makes it look even more like an early female figure! (though I hear they don’t like people giving the carvings names – unless, of course, one of them lot names it…)

References:

  1. Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Milverton 2001.
  2. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.
  3. Gimbutas, Marija, The Language of the Goddess, Harper-Collins: San Francisco 1989.
  4. Gimbutas, Marija, The Civilization of the Goddess: The World of Old Europe, Harper-Collins: San Franciscoo 1991.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


William Walker Stone, Keighley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SD 99904 40659 

Getting Here

William Walker's Cup-and-Ring
William Walker’s Cup-and-Ring

You need to get to the eastern edge of Keighley Moor by taking the country road northwest out of Oakworth (one of two roads) and head to the end of Newsholme Dean Valley at Slippery Ford.  You can park up at Slippery Ford at Morkin Bridge, then walk up the road for 250 yards, turning sharp left up the dirt-track.  Walk along its wibbly route for another 250 yards and watch out for the large boulder in one of the fields on the left.  That’s it!

Archaeology & History

Sketching the design

I came across this previously unrecorded carving in August 2006 after returning from an amble over the moors in the pouring rain and was fortunate to be able to make out the faint design, for, as with most cup-and-ring carvings, depending on the daylight conditions determines whether the carving is visible or not.  Although some of the cup-marks on here are quite distinct, several are very faded and — as usual! — there are a number of dubious ones to work out!

Central design of cups & ring
Main design of cups & ring

The carving gets its name due to the rock having a carved epitaph for an old local farmer — called William Walker — on its eastern face.  There are also the letters “I.W.” carved on its sloping upper face, which looks typical of boundary mark notation, though this stone aint been on any boundary for at least 160 years (I aint checked earlier records).  But much older on top of the rock we find perhaps as many as 20 cup-markings, which at first I first thought might be natural, but this was suddenly halted when I noticed in the bad light a large circle with several cups along it, inside of which were two other cups.  On the southern edge of the rock it seems there may be another 3 or 4 cup-marks, one with a line running down (possibly natural).  I took a couple of pictures when I first found it but they weren’t too well-defined.  The ones here are a little better.

Artist's impression - by Angela Hainsworth
Artist’s impression by Angela Hainsworth
Close-up of ring, cups & lines

The main feature here is obviously the curious ‘ring’ above a small eroded basin, consisting of several cups, with two in the centre.  On closer examination it appears that the ‘ring’ is in fact an unfinished circle with the two central cups having lines running from them to the incomplete ring, leaving a gap or opening at the bottom.  The lack of other cup-and-ring carvings in the vicinity (apart from the simple Cob Stone, 750 yards away below Grey Stones Hill) is an oddity.  A few more ventures onto the local hills are definitely required to see if anything else can be found!

Acknowledgements:  With thanks to Angela Hainsworth for her assistance and sketch of the design.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Man Stone, Askwith Moor, North Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 16722 50595

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.516 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

Man Stone (by Inmaculada Ibanez-Sanchez)
Man Stone (by Inmaculada Ibanez-Sanchez)

Truly takes a bit of finding this one!  I s’ppose the easiest way to locate it is by approaching it from the south, from Askwith village, up Hall Lane.  Keep walking up the footpath to Top Moorside Farm; then past it, sticking to the same path.  A hundred yard or so past here we get onto the moor itself.  As you hit the moor, you’ll see that the land rises slowly ahead of you: this is Hollin Tree Hill and you need to walk up here (don’t do this in the summer as it’ll be covered in bracken and you’ll not find a damn thing!).  Just before the land starts to levels-out at the top of this small rise, you’ll come across some hut circles.  You’re here!

Man Stone
image courtesy of Graeme Chappell

You can also come to this carving via the Askwith Moor parking-bit, then walk along the well-trod footpath, past the triangulation pillar of Shooting House Hill for a coupla hundred yards, then walk straight south into the moor.  But to those of you who aint got the nose for it, there’s no footpaths here and some folk might easily lose their way.  However, if you reach the rise of Hollin Tree Hill a few hundred yards down the moor, watch out for those same hut circles mentioned elsewhere atop of the rising land.  You’re damn close!

Archaeology & History

One of my very favourite cup-and-ring carvings this one!  It was discovered about 1991 when Graeme Chappell and I were on one of our many archaeology wanderings, seeking out prehistoric remains on the moors north of Ilkley.  First described and illustrated in Bob Trubshaw’s (1996) archaeomythics journal, it was later included in The Old Stones of Elmet (2001: 149-152).  But when we first found it, this carving – on the vertical face of a small stone, beside an unexcavated hut circle – sent me a bit crazy, as the ‘human’ image in the carving struck me immediately. Needless to say, Graeme was all calm about it while I jumped around like an excited tit!  As far as we’re aware, this is the earliest representation of a human figure in the British Isles.  There are several other contenders in cup-and-ring design, but this seems the most probable of the lot.  Graeme Chappell took a rubbing of the stone several years after we’d found it and the outline clearly shows the image of a human figure.  The carving was later catalogued by rock art students Boughey & Vickerman (2003) in their  Yorkshire survey as ‘stone 516.’  A female compatriot, the Woman Stone, can be found a few hundred yards east of here, at the bottom of the slope by the near horizon.

The fact that the carving occurs on the southern vertical face of a prehistoric hut circle may have had some significance about the structure itself.  Petroglyphs on hut circles are rare—and this one occurs right at the entrance to the structure, the door into the circle.  It may represent an image of the person who lived in this hut circle, or perhaps symbolized the nature of the character living there.  The carving shows that the person was wearing a head-dress, akin to a horned-man figure – but much much earlier than anything previously recognised in British iconography.  The figure may well be a shaman who, perhaps, lived at this circle.  The carving was probably painted in lichens and other dyes

The Man Stone carving
Boughey & Vickerman sketch
Boughey & Vickerman sketch

Be careful not to wander around looking for this when there’s fog on the hills.  You’re unlikely to find it!  On an excursion up here several years back with Prof. Thomas Dowson and students from the Southampton University Rock Art course, we wandered about all over the place in the dense fog but were unable to find the damn thing!  Twas a bittova freaky day, as half the students started crying (they thought I’d got them truly lost in the middle of nowhere as I didn’t have a map, a compass, walking boots, etc – which is how I usually do my wanderings, but they weren’t to know that!) and we must have walked within 10 yards of the carving, but it remained hidden from our prying eyes.  But if you like your rock art, check this one out!

References:

  1. Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Milverton 2001.
  2. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
  3. Trubshaw, Bob, “Unique British Anthropomorphic Rock Carving”, in At the Edge, no.4, December 1996.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian