Weetwood Moor 3
Bronze Age Carved Rock / Rock Art
East of Wooler, Northumberland  OS Map Ref NU02222821
OS Maps - Landranger 75 (Berwick-upon-Tweed), Explorer 340 (Holy Island & Bamburgh)


Weetwood Moor 3
Weetwood Moor 3 (ERA 142). This is a stunningly beautiful carved slab of sandstone that has six cup and ring motifs, some are quite worn while others look incredibly fresh - the most prominent one in the foreground in particular has deep clear rings that have a real tactile quality to them. This motif also has a particularly wide central cup from which a gutter runs a short distance before veering off to link with another cup and ring to the upper right of the rock (the groove can be seen running from the bottom of the gutter, through the lower patch of lichen towards the smaller patch of grass, it can then be faintly seen curving as it enters the bottom of the second motif).
Weetwood Moor 3
Closer view of the carvings. From top left to bottom right the motifs are as follows: Top row 1 - A cup with a pair of rings, 2 - cup with four rings and a gutter or groove linking it to the motif below. Middle row 3 - a well formed cup has five narrow worn rings with a gutter running to the edge of the carving to its right, 4 - a cup and gutter with four wide but quite worn rings, 5 - a wide shallow cup with a gutter linked to the motif above has five well preserved rings. Bottom row 6 - cup with two rings and a short gutter that links to what could be a worn groove that appears as a continuation of a crack in the rock surface. Just below this another groove can be seen running horizontally just above the bottom of the picture while there are a couple of cups to the left of the cup and ring motif.
Weetwood Moor 3 - Detail
Detail of the most prominent motif. The wide cup, clear rings and slightly flattened appearance of this carving may suggest that it was carved at a different time to the rest of the designs on the rock and it is interesting to note that the carver chose to carve the rings across a natural crack in the rock surface. The groove linking it to another motif can be seen at the right of the picture passing through the patch of lichen on the right and the clump of grass above.
Weetwood Moor 3 - George Tate 1865
Illustration from 'The Ancient Sculptured Rocks of Northumberland and the Eastern Borders' by George Tate 1865. It is interesting to note that Tate did not show some of the grooves that would have appeared on the left hand side of the picture and that can clearly be seen in the photographs above. He may have considered them natural features as he drew the obviously man-made groove linking the two motifs across the bottom of the picture.
See also Weetwood Moor 1 & 3, Weetwood Moor 5, 7 & Cairn, Weetwood Moor 6

Back to Map | Home | Full Glossary | Links | Email: chriscollyer@stone-circles.org.uk