prehistoric rock art

Map Stone, Ilkley Moor, West Yorkshire

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

Also known as:

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

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.

cr295-2 — Map Stone (note the carved line along the very edge of the rock)

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 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:

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

Horncliffe Circle, Hawskworth Moor, West Yorkshire

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Stone Circle: OS Grid Reference – SE 13335 43532

Getting Here

Get to the famous Dick Hudson’s pub on the south-side of Ilkley Moor and go east for about 700 yards till you get to Weecher reservoir (posh doods go yachting there). From here cross the road and walk on for 150 yards till you reach the stile which takes you onto the moors. Walk! Follow the footpath and you’ll go over another wall before eventually hitting the beautiful fresh waters of Horncliffe Well (this has never dried up – even in the summers of ’76 and ’95). Sit here for a while before heading for the circle which is on the east-side of the moorland fence just a coupla hundred yards up onto the moor (you’ll cross a coupla streams before reaching the site). You’ll know you’re close when, to your left by the fence, you’ll see a boundary stone with the name ‘Thos. Pulleyn’ engraved on it.

Archaeology & History

Early drawing of Horncliffe Circle (Speight 1898)

Horncliffe is a bittova strange site, inasmuch as we don’t honestly know precisely what it is, nor its age. It used to be categorized as a ‘stone circle’, but this was abandoned many moons ago. The inner circle of this ellipse-shaped monument was thought to have perhaps contained a burial, but Victorian excavations here found no such evidence; no burials have ever been found, though fires were evidently burned in the small central ring.

Nowadays I’m of the opinion that this was more for living-in, than any ritual site. It ‘smells’ like that anyway (modern OS-maps now term it as an ‘enclosure’); and this may be borne out by the ancient name of the trackway travelling north from here called ‘Castle Gate’, meaning ‘entrance or path by the fortification.’ Faint ‘cup-markings’ reported by Harry Speight (1898) on the outer edge of the ring are very likely Nature’s handiwork.

Horncliffe is a double-ringed ellipse structure, surrounded on its northern side by a natural embankment of earth. It was first mentioned in J.N.M. Colls’ (1846) survey, but more was said of it by James Wardell in 1869, who told that,

“there is a circle of stones of various sizes, from three-feet to five-feet in height; they are chiefly set upon their edges and are of sandstone grit. This circle is forty-three feet in diameter and within it there is a smaller circle, composed of stones of the same composition…and set in the same manner.”

A few years later, the Yorkshire literary giant Harry Speight (1898) penned his first words about this curious circle, saying:

“The best example of a stone circle in the vicinity of Bingley lies on the moor close to the parish boundary, on land belonging to Mr Fawkes, of Farnley Hall. It is a complete circle, consisting of about twenty stones, placed close together (a very unusual arrangement), from two to four feet high, the circumference being about 35 yards. An excavation was made in the middle of it some years ago, when bits of flint were found, but no trace of burial. It is built on a slight slope of the moor, facing the south, and is now much concealed by heather. It is, doubtless, the oldest known evidence of man’s handiwork remaining in the neighbourhood of Bingley, and there is small doubt that it was originally intended to fence a burial, such “Druids’ Circles” being primarily meant to enclose places of sepulchre in the same way that walled enclosures came to be adopted round our churchyards. A large flat stone on the top side, about three yards distant, is marked with cups and channels, and probably was in the centre of the circle originally.”

When Arthur Raistrick (1929) visited the circle, his measurements differed somewhat from those of Mr Wardell, telling the site to have diameters of 25 feet (east-west) and 32 feet (north-south), with 46 stones in the outer ring and 17 in the inner circle.

This is one of many sites on these moors that I slept at over the years when I was a kid. It used to be a really peaceful spot that was rarely troubled by other visitors (not sure if it’s still the same though).

Folklore

Although we have nothing specific to the circle, around the nearby Horncliffe Well a coupla hundred yards away we had accounts told us by the old warden whose job it was to look after this moorland, that will-o-the-wisps had been seen here. There is a seeming alignment to the equinoxes from here to Reva Hill – though this is more fortuitous than deliberate. A dowsing survey found aquastats in and around the circle, but no plan of these were ever made.

References:

Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Milverton 2001.
Colls, J.N.M., ‘Letter upon some Early Remains Discovered in Yorkshire,’ in Archaeologia 31, 1846.
Raistrick, Arthur, ‘The Bronze Age in West Yorkshire,’ in YAJ 1929.
Speight, Harry, Chronicles and Stories of Old Bingley, Elliot Stock: London 1898.
Wardell, James, Historical Notices on Ilkley, Rombald’s Moor, Baildon Common, etc., Leeds 1869.

Woman Stone, Askwith Moor, North Yorkshire

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

Also Known as:

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 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

woman-stonedr — 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)

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:

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

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

William Walker Stone — 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

William Walker CRs 006 sm — 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.

Warley Edge, Halifax, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone (lost): OS Grid Reference – SE 062 253

Archaeology & History

Warley Edge CR — Warley Edge Cup-and-ring stone

A rare find in Calderdale, as it’s only one of a very small number of full cup-and-ring designs — though its exact whereabouts remains elusive. From Heginbottom’s (1979) OS-reference, it’s close to a pretty built-up area, so may be destroyed.

He described it as a “large block with cup and ring markings, built into a dry stone wall,” 900ft above sea level. So where eactly is it…?

References:

Heginbottom, J.A., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Upper Calderdale and the Surrounding Area, YAS: Leeds 1979.

Snowden Carr Carving (594), Timble, North Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 17903 51266

Also Known as:

Fence Stone

Getting Here

Follow the same directions to reach the Tree of Life Stone, then walk up the well-worn footpath up the slope for about 100 yards and, as you get to near the top of the hill, just watch out for a large-ish stone on the right. That’s it!

Archaeology & History

First described by Eric Cowling 1937, here we have what here looks like a faded cup-and-ring plus at least eight other cup-markings near Snowden Crags (though Boughey & Vickerman [2003] counted only 6 cups here). In more recent years it has become known as the “Fence Stone” due to its proximity the straight line of fencing which ran across the moor hereby. Cowling’s description of the site told:

CR594 (Cowling) — Cowling’s 1937 drawing

“The spur of hill separating Snowden Carr from Snowden Craggs is surmounted by a D-shaped enclosure which has a small level area in the highest corner. Here, on a triangular table stone amongst the heather, is a well-cut cup, ring and radial groove running to the margin of the surface. Four other cups appear to have no definite arrangement.”

He went onto say that “many of the boulders which surround this table are marked with cups.” They are indeed!

References:

Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Cowling, Eric T., “Cup and Ring Markings to the North of Otley,” in Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, part 131, 33:3, 1937.
Cowling, Eric T., Rombald’s Way: A Prehistory of Mid-Wharfedale, William Walker: Otley 1946.

Acknowledgements: A huge thanks to James Elkington for use of his photo for this site profile.

Morphing Stone, Dacre, North Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 18559 61795

Also known as:

Snoopy Stone
Eastwoods Rough Carving
IAG 638a (Boughey)

Getting Here

Mr Stroud's drawing of the stone — Mr Stroud’s drawing of the stone

Various ways to get here. I s’ppose the easiest is from Dacre village. If you go just past Sunny House, take the footpath on your right & walk along it, roughly straight across a number of fields, until you hit the footpath known as the Nidderdale Way. The field you’re now in should be scattered with numerous rocks all over the place (if it aint, you’re in the wrong place), reaching down towards the trees. Walk straight towards the trees for another 100 yards and the carving is somewhere hereabouts under your nose! You’re very close! If, however, you decide to walk up the Nidderdale Way from Dacre Banks, the field you need is the one immediately to your right just before you reach the Monk Ing Road trackway. The Tadpole Stone (or Eastwoods Rough II carving) is in the same field, close to the Nidderdale Way path — check that out aswell!

Archaeology & History

This is a large carving I found in April, 2006, in the company of rock-art student Richard Stroud (who sent us the pictures). Twas in the midst of a fine day wandering about checking some of the ‘known’ sites in the area, when we happened across two or three previously unknown sites — and as the day wore on, just before we were gonna head for home, this little beauty poked the edge of its head out of the turf! It had the pair of us in near rapture, with numerous “Wow’s” and excitable expletives coming from our mouths! We’re easily pleased us rock-art doods — but then it is a beauty when you first see it.

Morphing Stone carving (photo © Richard Stroud)

Morphing Stone, Dacre (photo © Richard Stroud)

We came here several times in the weeks following its initial discovery, and it seemed that on each visit, we found an additional aspect to the carving. It seemed to keep changing each time we came here — hence the name ‘Morphing Stone’!

The prime feature in the carving is the very large oval-shaped ‘ring’ with huge carved bowl in the middle and several outlying cups-markings around it. Although it’s not plain to see in the photos, there’s a large tongue-shaped protuberance jutting out from one side of the main ringed feature. You can also see a small cluster of cup-marks on the top-right of the rock: from here — though it isn’t easy to see in the photo — a long straight line links up with the edge of the major central ring. Other lines run off on the top of the main feature and there are several other cup-markings on different parts of the stone. It’s obviously best to see the carving “in the flesh”, so to speak, to get a good impression of what it actually looks like. And, to those of you who might wanna venture up here, there are several others nearby.

A year or two after rediscovering the carving, rock art student Keith Boughey (2007) described the stone, saying:

“Measuring 2.61m from N-S and 1.88m from W-E at its greatest extent, the carved surface carries quite a complex design… At its N end is a large cup/basin with an approximate diameter of 25-30cm, surrounded by a ring that may or may not be complete: 2 cups have been incorporated into the ring on its N and W side. W of this ring a groove leads off S to a further possible cup. On the E side of the large central cup are 3 further cups of varying size. These motifs are all enclosed within a wide groove, which forms almost a dome pattern. Out of the ring, a further groove runs NW out of the design, bisecting the enclosing groove, curving round to form a handle shape before running back in towards the large central cup. The groove shows signs of continuing E towards the edge of the stone. Just outside the W edge of the enclosing dome is one well-defined cup. S of this, in a slight depression, are 2 further cups of differing size. A straight groove appears to run SW out of the enclosing dome shape on its E side towards further motifs on the stone’s S side. The groove may run into an area of cup marks, but there appears to be a break before it continues. When exposed, the carvings looked quite fresh and sharp, suggesting that they had remained covered for some considerable time – possible since antiquity or at least from a time in the prehistoric past when cup-and-ring-markings had begun to lose their significance and were no longer required to be visible in the landscape.”

To those of you who like the new computer images of cup-and-rings, the three below are samples from a number of such images done after the stone had been discovered. Intriguingly, the long line running between the cluster of cups to the large cup-and-ring doesn’t show up too well; but the barely perceptible line running out, zigzag-fashion, from the large central cup-and-ring, shows up much clearer than when looking with the naked eye.

References:

Boughey, K., “Prehistoric Rock Art: Four New Discoveries in Nidderdale,” in Prehistoric Research Section Bulletin, no.44, Yorkshire Archaeological Society 2007.

Middleton Moor Carving (454), North Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 10980 51284

Archaeology & History

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.

Middleton Moor Carving (453), North Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Line Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 10968 51279

Archaeology & History

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.

Middleton Moor Carving (440), North Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 10875 51390

Getting Here

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.

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.