From Bingley, head up to Eldwick (either road, it doesn’t matter) until you hit the crossroads at the top where you go up Heights Lane onto the moors (ask someone if you’re struggling). Right at the top where the lane meets the moorland road, straight across is a dirt-track onto the moor. You’re going up there! Walk up for about 350 yards, then go into the heather on your left. About 20-30 yards in, keep your eyes peeled for the stone in the photo. It’s low down, a few feet across either way, but easily missed when it gets covered in heather.
Archaeology & History
Todmoor carving’s cup & lines
Up here again today — Mikki Potts, Dave and me — this was first carving we came to. It was first discovered by the late great Stuart Feather (1961) on one of his many forays onto these moors. It’s a bittovan odd carving: deep wide grooves, seemingly carved out by humans, in which some other cups have then been carved; plus an odd scatter of other singular cup-markings, what looks like a double-cup, and a long winding line running from near the middle to the stone’s western edge. All the carved elements have been etched onto the southern half of the stone. The lovely little Todmor standing stone is about 50 yards northwest of here.
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Feather, Stuart, “Mid-Wharfedale Cup-and-Ring Markings. Nos. 5 & 6,” in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 6:7, 1961.
Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
From the back of Moor End Farm on the south-side of Langbar village, follow the Long Ridge footpath up onto the moor. Walk along the path until its starts dipping down again, onto the moor proper and where another footpath crosses and goes down into the small valley of the Dryas Dike stream: follow it down, crossing the stream and up the small slope till you’re on the next level of ground. Stop here and walk right, off-path and up the gentle slope towards a small fenced-off piece of moor. About 30 yards before the fence, check out the rocks under your noses. You’re damn close!
Archaeology & History
If you’re gonna come up this region, this is the carving you’ll most wanna check out. It’s the most ornamented of all the cup-and-ring stones at the top of Delves Beck. Comprising at least five full cup-and-rings and a number of single cups, carved on a roughly square flat rock, it was first found by Stuart Feather in the mid-1960s. It sits amidst a cluster of many other carvings on the same ridge. This (for me at least) is something of a curiosity, inasmuch as we have a seeming lack of other prehistoric remains in attendance.
Carving 448 with paint damage…and again, with paint damage
On the other side of the Wharfe valley above Ilkley, aswell as where we find cup-and-ring clusters on the Aire valley side at Baildon and East Morton, a preponderance of burials tend to cluster around clusters of rock art; but this doesn’t, initially, seem evident here. A possible cairn is located on the northern side of this small ridge, and there is distinct evidence of another cairn down the slope on the other side of the Dryas Dike stream (by stone 440) just 100 yards away, but that’s it. A more thorough examination of this region is required to see if other burial remains were in evidence hereby in the past. I have photos of seemingly cairn-scatter material, and ancient walling in is clear evidence on the northern side of Dryas, but much more work needs doing. Obviously much of this would require full surface excavation, which means we’re gonna need quite a bit of work and effort to see if the rock-art/burial patterns found elsewhere are echoed here. It’s likely, it’s gotta be said.
…On a slightly more disturbing note: when me and Dave were up here last week, this carving and several others with more ornate designs on this ridge (carvings 446, 453 and others) had been painted over in some black substance. You can see this clearly in the photos we took, above. Whoever did it appears (word gets to me that a arty-dood called Paul did it) has done so to highlight the carvings so they stand out very clearly. If you wanna highlight carvings for better images or photos, there are much better ways of bringing out the designs than the methods you employed there: chalk for one!
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Feather, Stuart W., “Mid-Wharfedale Cup-and-Ring Markings: Nos 43 & 44, Middleton Moor,” in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 11:4, 1966.
Follow the same directions to find the Middleton Moor carvings of 441, 445, or others close by. If you can get to carving 445, then you’re about 20 yards northeast away from this one! A bittova upright stone, with another undecorated smooth flat rock about one-foot away.
Archaeology & History
Amidst the clump of other carvings on top of the ridge at the head of Delves Beck on the southern side of Dryas Dike, is this small standing-stone-like rock, which has a distinct single cup-marking right on the topmost part of the stone. In certain lighting conditions it seems that there may have been a partial surrounding-ring on its top, or perhaps a smaller faded cup by its side. It’s hard to tell — so let’s play safe and just stick with it being a single-cup stone for the time being!
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Follow the same directions to find Middleton Moor’s 441 carving. Then, go across the small stream a bit further down the slope and up up the slope until you’re on the level. Once on this small rise in the land, look up the slight slope where approaching the the fenced area. You’re close!
Archaeology & History
Middleton Moor carving 445
On the Middle Ridge between the streams of Delves Beck and Dryas Dike, this small rounded triangular-shaped carved stone has eight simple cup-markings eroded, but notable on its smooth surface. Boughey & Vickerman (2003) suggest some may be gunshot marks, which has to be considered at several of the seeming ‘cup-markings’ on this moor. (particularly at Carving no.440 less than 100 yards away) Archaeo-astronomers amongst you will note the Cassiopeia-like central design on this design — though this is probably coincidental (it might have tickled mi fancy when I was going thru my astroarchaeology phase many years back, but not anymore).
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – NZ 0774 7048
Archaeology & History
1928 photo of carving
Found inside a prehistoric tomb that was excavated in the late 1920s “by Messrs R.C. and W.P. Hedley at Pike Hill, near Stamfordham,” this fascinating-looking carving was found on a stone that “was overlying the primary burial” cist in the middle of the tumulus, measuring “2 feet 9 inches long by 2 feet wide and 12 inches deep, with an orientation on the longer axis of NE.” As we can see in the old photo that accompanied Mr Hedley’s (1928) short article in Antiquity journal, four single cups are arranged in a rough square and are joined with each other by a single line, running from cup to cup, outlining a clear quadrilateral formation. Two other single cups are outliers on the left and right side of the ‘square.’
A second smaller cist was also found inside the same mound and on the central inner face of this was another, more simplistic carving described as “a very fine cup-mark 1½ inch in diameter and ¾-inch deep.” These carvings are no longer in situ (I think they’re in Newcastle Museum) and apparently this second single cup-marked stone can no longer be located.
References:
Beckensall, Stan, Northumberland’s Prehistoric Rock Carvings, Pendulum: Rothbury 1983.
Beckensall, Stan, Prehistoric Rock Motifs of Northumberland – volume 2: Beanley to the Tyne, Abbey Press: Hexham 1992.
Hedley, R. Cecil, “Ancient British Burials, Northumberland,” in Antiquity Journal, volume 2, December 1928.
This is an outstanding site visible for miles around in just about every direction – so getting here is easy! If you’re coming from Harrogate, south down the A658, turn right and go thru North Rigton. Ask a local. If you’re coming north up the A658 from the Leeds or Bradford area, do exactly the same! (either way, you’ll see the crags rising up from some distance away)
Archaeology & History
Almscliffe Crags – looking east
This giant outcrop of rock rises out from the meadowlands here like a miniature volcano, visible for many miles all round. The history and legends surrounding the aged edifice are prodigious and the view from its tops on a fine day is one to be remembered. It is likely, although there is little corroborative historical evidence, that is was an “omphalos”, or navel centre of the universe for the local people many centuries ago. A great cutting runs through its centre and “runs from nearly north to south, and forms the boundary between the townships of Rigton and Stainburn, so that a portion of the rock is in each township.” On the respective sides of this division are carved the letters “T.F.” and “E.L.”, being the initials of the families who owned the land here in olden days, Thomas Fawkes [of the legendary Guy Fawkes’ family] and Edwin Lascelles, of the ancient Harewood family.
Although Almscliffe Crags have been described in a great many local history books, it almost beggars belief to find it omitted from all the ancient mystery or “sacred sites” books ever written. Curious… Such lesser sites as Alderley Edge, the Cow and Calf rocks, Kilburn’s White Horse, Twelve Apostles stone circle, and many more, whilst having their respective virtues, don’t touch this place for ritual or sacred intent.
First described in the early 13th century records of Fountains Abbey, A.H. Smith (1961) thought the name of Almscliffe itself originally came from a hypothetical lady’s name, which seems an all-too-easy proclamation to make, instead of the humble option of “I don’t know”! But Smith wasn’t the only one to throw some curious ideas up about the etymology of Almscliffe. Said by some local etymologists to derive from the Celtic Al-, a rock or cliff, and mias, an altar, there are other attempts to bring its rocky form into a consensus meaning. The anglo-saxon Ael or El, being fire, and messe, or mass; and the Scandinavian Ormcliff, being the “cliff of the serpent”. In Jones’ History of Harewood (1859), he tells
“it to have derived its name from the distribution of almes, at certain times, agreeably to the tenor of legacies left to the chapel which stood there in the sixteenth century, and was at that time dedicated to the Virgin Mary.”
It’s difficult to say which one tells its true title. Many a druidic tale has also been carved into its form. Such is the nature of this site that Grainge (1871) wrote how,
“it would not be difficult to show, with the exception of the artificial temple or circle of stones, this place possesses all the accessories of that ancient worship as…typical of the worship of the sun.”
Simpson’s 1879 drawing of the Almscliffe ‘cromlech’
A remark that was even echoed by one of Yorkshire’s finest and most sober historians, Harry Speight. (1903) Grainge also pointed out that in his day there were three standing stones by the great Crags, one fallen, but “two of these rocks yet stand upright.” A few years later we find that the ranting christian writer, Henry T. Simpson (1879), described similar megalithic remains here, though his description was of a “cromlech.” (illustrated here) I can find no trace, nor further references to these relics; but think it reasonable to suggest that, perhaps, Simpson’s cromlech and Grainge’s standing stones may have been one and the same monument.
In the field 100 yards immediately north of the Crags (the one with the two rocks in it) there used to be seen the remains of some primitive early walling, suggestive of a small, early settlement site. Very little can be seen of these remains today and, as far as I’m aware, no archaeological survey was ever done of them. In all honesty, it’s highly probable that a number of other important prehistoric sites were once in evidence at varying distances around Almscliffe Crags…
Folklore
The creation myth of Almscliffe tells that, long long ago, the great giant Rombald — whose main place of residence tended to be Ilkley Moor — was having a fight with the devil upon his homeland heath. As is common in the myths of giants, the ‘devil’ picked up a great boulder and threw it at Rombald, but it missed and fell just short of the village of North Rigton, creating Almscliffe Crags. A variation of this tale tells that it was Rombald and his wife having the argument and she threw the stones to create the place. Several sites have been named as the place where the mythological argument occurred: the Cow and Calf rocks, the Great Skirtful and Little Skirtful of Stones all cited in the folktales of our Yorkshire peasants. Another variation of the tale tells that the devil was simply carrying some stones (as devils and giants are renowned to do in the folk-tales of the world) and he accidentally dropped them where the Crags now stand. Such rock-throwing tales are, once more, symptomatic of cailleach tales more commonly found in Ireland and Scotland.
There are a great many cup-markings on the top surface of these Crags, most of which seem natural, but it is not unreasonable to think that, perhaps, some may have been carved by human hands? (not sure misself) Eric Cowling (1946) sincerely believed the antiquity of some carvings here. One of them particularly, three feet across and eighteen inches deep, though seemingly natural, has for several centuries been known as the “Wart Well.” Its name is attributed to folklore that is more commonly found in Ireland and the Scottish highlands; that is, should you have a wart, prick it with a pin until a drop or two of blood drips into the water that gathers in the stone bowl, then dip your hand in afterwards. The wart is sure to vanish. Another method to achieve the same end is to merely wash the skin affliction in the water, and it will soon fade. (Interestingly, an old psychotherapist friend, afflicted with the damned things, did just this and they promptly vanished.)
A more minor creation myth tells that the stone bowls we see on top of the Crags here – including the Wart Well – was actually made when the giant Rombald stepped from his home onto the Crags and left his footprint embedded in the rock face. He was said to have made it in just one step, from the Giant Skirtful of Stones prehistoric cairn [where one legend reputes him buried].
Faerie folk were also long held to live here. On the northwest side of the Crags is the entrance to a small cave that was always known as the Faerie’s Parlour, as it was said to be an entrance to their supernatural world. In times past, many people have scrambled down into the cave, but never reached their Otherworldly paradise. William Grainge (1871) wrote how the little people “were all powerful on this hill and exchanged their imps for children of the farmers round about.” This is typical of old changeling lore! In outlying villages surrounding the Crags there is a particular excess of faerie and old heathen lore.
One very curious-sounding tale tells how a goose was sent down the hole and, after some considerable time, re-emerged 3½ miles away out from a well near Harewood Bridge. The goose is one of the many symbols of the sun and one of its primary symbolic attributes is that of winter. Interestingly perhaps, as the rock art writer Graeme Chappell has pointed out, the underground journey of the goose from Almscliffe to Harewood Bridge coincides closely with the rising of sun on morning of the winter solstice. This tale may simply be a folk remnant — and an archaic one at that — of just that event: ritualising winter solstice from these Crags. In Norse lore, shamans tell of geese carrying the great god Wotan across the skies at the coming of the Yule period.
Another ritual date that was celebrated here was Beltane, or May 1. Not only do we find many of the outlying villages possessed their own maypoles, but in 1879 Mr Simpson of Adel reported seeing Beltane fires atop of these rocks. Other meetings were made here as the Crags are spliced in half by the local boundary line, and perambulation records show that people came here during the ‘beating of the bounds’, as they used to be called. This boundary perambulation moot ingredient is what strongly implies the site to have had ritual importance. And the fact that a mass of folktales emerge from here adds to this. Then of course we have the physical situation of the Crags at the heart of the mid-Wharfedale landscape. All these ingredients combined, strongly suggest the site would have been, not just the ritual meeting place of tribal elders in pre-christian times, but an omphalos: it rises majestically from the land and all monuments gaze towards its giant form. Important giant prehistoric monuments from the hills miles away tell of myths that come and go from this proud mass of stone. Although we have other omphali just over the extended horizons from Almscliffe, this is where the World began in the creation myths of ancient times in mid-Wharfedale, at the heart of the ancient kingdom of Elmet.
But there is still more lore to be told of these rocks…
The centre piece of the Crags is known as the Altar Rocks. Upon its western side is carved the “figure of a large tree, which we take to be the monogram of the Celtic Jupiter,” says Grainge. This assumption is derived from an eighteenth century writer who, said Speight (1903), told that “Almnus and Alumnus are titles of Jupiter, to whom this high altar was dedicated.”
The highest part of the Crags, to the west, is known as Lover’s Leap where, in 1766, a daughter of a respectable Rigton farmer of the name Royston, having been disappointed in love, decided to kill herself. She jumped, so legend reputes, from a point some sixty feet above ground, but a strong wind blowing at the time caught hold of her dress and carried her through the air until she landed safely in an adjoining field with naught but a sprained thumb! The said lady realised the stupidity of her ways and was said to have lived out a long and fine life.
In recent years earthlights (UFOs) have been seen floating above and around the great outcrop. It is likely that these were the same things which, in days of olde, the people would call the faerie. I highly recommend visiting the place!
References:
Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Milverton 2001.
Bogg, Edmund, From Eden Vale to the Plains of York, James Miles: Leeds 1895.
Bogg, Edmund, Higher Wharfeland, James Miles: Leeds 1904
Cowling, E.T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
Eliade, Mircea, Patterns in Comparative Religion, Sheed & Ward: London 1958.
Grainge, William, History & Topography of Harrogate and the Forest of Knaresborough, J.R. Smith: London 1871.
Jones, John, The History and Antiquities of Harewood, Simpkin Marshall: London 1859.
Simpson, William, Archaeologia Adelensis, W.H. Allen: London 1879.
Smith, A.H., The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire – volume 5, Cambridge University Press 1961.
Speight, Harry, Kirkby Overblow and District, Elliott Stock: London 1904.
Standing Stone (destroyed?): OS Grid Reference – SE 2501 4119
Also Known as:
Long Stoop
Archaeology & History
Sadly gone, this looked to be one helluvan impressive standing stone. Described just once by the christian fruitbat Henry Simpson (1879), who told us:
“In a hedge-row, or rather stone row…is a remarkable, ancient monolith, it is thirteen feet in height; from its slender character, it does not appear to have formed one of a trilithon, but rather to have constituted a memorial of some sort, or as a beacon of some usefulness. I can discover no barrow or earthwork near the spot. There are remnants of a quarry close by, with a mound of earth arising therefrom, but no indications to give a clue to the meaning or use of this single pillar. It is composed, moreover, of millstone grit, which is not to be found in the immediate neighbourhood, so it must have been brought from a distance and placed in its present position.
“Some suppose this to be a Roman stoup or pillar, designed for a landmark; but it bears no mark of Roman worksmanship. It is crude in the extreme.”
Simpson’s 1879 drawing
There is no available folklore known to the Long Stoop, although a long straight path terminated where the monolith stood. This path was one of many in an intricate geometric lay-out of perfect circular and dead straight tracks in the woodland immediately south of here [now built over], with four-, eight- and twelve-fold lines intersecting each other over a very large area. It may be that this large, seemingly lost standing stone, could have been a part of the ornate grounds that were laid out here in bygone centuries, perhaps erected by the architects behind the project.
It would be damn good if locals in and around Adel could relocate this monolith — which is as likely propping up some old walling somewhere nearby — so we can make a healthy assessment as to its authenticity. Are there any Leeds pagans who might be able to rediscover this lost standing stone?
References:
Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Milverton 2001.
Simpson, Henry Trail, Archaeologia Adelensis; or a History of the Parish of Adel, W.H. Allen: London 1879.
You can come from various angles to approach this site, but I reckon the best is from along the old trackway of Parson’s Lane, between Addingham and Marchup. From Silsden go up the long hill (A6034) towards Addingham until the hill levels out, then turn left on Cringles Lane (keep your eyes peeled!) for about 500 yards until you reach the Millenium Way or Parson’s Lane track, to your right. As you walk along this usually boggy old track, the rounded green hill ahead, to the left, if where you’re heading. Less than 100 yards past the little tumulus of High Marchup there’s a stile on your left that takes you into the field. You’ll notice the depression that runs across near the top, at an angle. That’s part of the earthworks!
Archaeology & History
The Counter Hill earthworks just over the far western edge of Rombald’s Moor – thought to be Iron Age – are truly gigantic. More than ¾-mile across along its longest NW-SE axis, and a half-mile from north-south at its widest point, this huge ellipse-shaped earthwork surrounds the rounded peaked hill that gives the site its name: Counter Hill. And although Harry Speight (1900) thought the hill got its name from the old Celtic conaltradh, or Irish conaltra, as in the ‘hill of debate or conversation’ — a possibility — the place-name master Mr Smith (1961) reckoned its name comes from little other than ‘cow turd hill’! We may never know for sure…
Earthworks south of Counter HillCowling’s 1946 plan
The Lancashire historian Thomas Dunham Whitaker (1878) appears to have been one of the first people to describe the Counter Hill remains, though due to the sheer size of the encampment he thought that it was Roman in nature. Within the huge enclosure we also find two large inner enclosures, known as the Round Dikes and the Marchup earthworks. Whitaker’s description of Counter Hill told:
“There are two encampments, on different sides of the hill, about half a mile from each other: one in the township of Addingham, the other in the parish of Kildwick; the first commanding a direct view of Wharfedale, the second an oblique one of Airedale; but though invisible to each other, both look down aslant upon Castleburg (Nesfield) and Ilkley. Within the camp on Addingham Moor are a tumulus and a perennial spring; but by a position very unusual in such encampments, it is commanded on the west by a higher ground, rising immediately from the foss. The inconvenience, however, is remedied by an expedient altogether new, so far as I have observed, in Roman castramentation, which is a line of circumvallation, enclosing both camps, and surround the whole hill: an area, probably, of 200 acres. A garrison calculated for the defence of such an outline must have been nothing less than an army. But it would be of great use in confining the horses and other cattle necessary for the soldiers’ use, which, in the unenclosed state of the country at the time, might otherwise have wandered many miles without interruption. The outlines of these remains is very irregular; it is well known, however, that in their summer encampments the Romans were far from confining themselves to a quadrangular figure, and when we consider their situation near the Street, and the anxious attention with which they have been placed, so as to be in view of Ilkley or Castleburg, there can be little danger of a mistake in ascribing them to that people.”
Counter Hill earthworks, looking west
And though Whitaker’s sincerity and carefully worded logic for the period is quite erudite (much moreso than the greater majority of historians in modern times), his proclamation of the Counter Hill earthworks as Roman is very probably wrong (soz Tom). The embankments are much more probably Iron Age in nature and are very probably the result of indigenous tribal-folk than that of the incoming Romans. Most modern archaeologists and historians tend to see the entrenchments as being from such a period and I have to concur.
Folklore
The old antiquarian Edmund Bogg (1904) wrote that the Counter Hill earthworks were built as a result “of the struggle between the Anglians and the Celt,” long ago. The great Yorkshire historian Harry Speight (1900) narrated similar lore just a few years earlier, but told that the tradition was “of how the Romans drove the natives from this commanding site of Counter Hill.”
References:
Bogg, Edmund, Higher Wharfeland: The Dale of Romance, James Miles: Leeds 1904.
Cowling, Eric T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
Fletcher, J.S., A Pictureseque History of Yorkshire – Part IX, J.M. Dent: London 1901.
Smith, A.H., The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire – volume 6, Cambridge University Press 1961.
Speight, Harry, Upper Wharfedale, Elliott Stock: London 1900.
Whitaker, T.D., The History and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven, 3rd edition, Joseph Dodgson: Leeds 1878.
From Steeton go to the top of Mill Lane, turning left up High Street. After about 200 yards, turn right (opposite Falcon Cliff street) and go down past the end of the row of terrace houses, to the end of the dirt-track past the allotments. Then cut up the fields to the rocky crags a coupla hundred yards above you on the left. Over the wall at the top, look out for the single tree in the field by the walling where there’s a small cluster of stones. That’s it!
Archaeology & History
The little Crater Stone and its more ornate companion, below
Hiding away on private land, this lovely simple carving was first located on Wednesday, April 7, 2010 (in the fine company of the Great Guru). Our initial assessment found it to be just a simple cup-marked stone with 4 normal cup-marks, plus two large ‘bowls’ just where the rock goes into the ground. When we found it the other day, Steve pulled a little bit of the earth back to get a better look at the stone, but we need to return here to unearth the rest of the stone (we didn’t have utensils with us this day, as we were just playing out).
The position of the stone in the land is excellent for views, looking down on the greater-looking Dragon Stone carving just a few yards away, but also looks across the Aire Valley and onto the moorland heights above Rivock, and the south-side of Ilkley Moor. I’ll update and add further notes and clearer images when we go back to the site (hopefully) in the next week (aswell as hopefully conjure up a more respectable title!).
This carving was discovered very recently following an exploration of recognised sites on Middleton Moor by rock art student Mike Short on March 28, 2010. Found amidst a cluster of other carved rocks, it was located after he noticed a small piece of stone poking out of the peat and — as happens to those folk obsessed by these ‘ere carvings — he decided to dig round the stone and cut the turf back to see if there was anything carved on the rock, as there are other cup-and-rings are close by. Thankfully, after a bit of effort digging round the stone, Mike found the carving we see in the images here! (courtesy of Mike and Richard Stroud). With a distinctly ‘facial’ appearance (hence the name), the following notes were written describing the new find:
“Small roughly oval dome-shaped medium grit rock approx. 49cm X 36cm, at and below soil level. Two cups, one of which is conical and deep (55mm deep and 65-75mm diameter) and of similar profile to one of the cups on No. 458; small shallow bowl-like depression with possible peck marks; curving groove on northern edge.”
When Mike finished with their drawings and measurements, the stone was covered back over and left in situ. Although I aint seen the carving ‘in the flesh’ misself yet (we’re gonna have a look next week) it gives me the impression it had some association with burials.
References:
Short, Mike & Stroud, Richard, “Report of New Carved Rock (‘Caspar’) on Middleton Moor,” April 2010.
