 The carved rock with Autumn leaves. |
 Plan of the carvings on the rock |
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Amazingly this carved
rock in a public wood popular with dog walkers and close to houses was only discovered
in 1981 and is the most eastern example of 'rock
art' in the Yorkshire area. There are three deep ovals containing cups
and linked by deep grooves and a long groove that follows the line of the rock
on one side. There are also several fainter cups and shallow grooves. One of the
ovals has been cut away at the sides to emphasis and raise the feature, this has
been described as a 'boss' and it is also suggested that it may be a unique feature.
Because of the rock's position within a wooded area the lack of direct sunlight
makes seeing the designs clearly difficult. The tree cover also makes trying to
determine the original layout of the landscape and the possible views from the
site problematic too, but it is possible to see that the land is starting to slope
away northeast downhill towards Nether Edge and the River Sheaf. In this respect
the rock has a broadly similar aspect to many of the carved stones further north
around the Ilkley area that also
stand above river valleys and like those stones this carving is thought to date
from the late Neolithic
or the Bronze
Age.
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