Cup mark on boulder near Buck Stone Lane, above Cowling.
NGR: SD 9847 4265. In a field close to Buck Stone Lane about halfway between the villages of Cowling and Sutton, West Yorkshire, there is a large gritstone boulder with a single cup mark carving on it. This large, earthfast glacial erratic boulder is a prominent landmark close to the public footpath which runs between Buck Stone Lane and the monument called Wainman’s Pinnacle, and, can be reached from the small car park at the side of the lane. It is approx. 50 m to the N. of the lane. On the upper side of the boulder there’s a large single cup marking, and, there may be a couple of smaller cups on the lower part of the boulder, but, these must be regarded as “possible cup marks”; there are also some features on the top of the rock that are very likely due to weather-related erosion. There are two more smaller boulders further along the footpath. Is this particular cup-marked boulder the actual ‘Buck Stone’ after which the lane is so named, or, is that stone somewhere further along the lane or on the moor nearby?
These rock art carvings which usually appear as small circular depressions on rocks (they can be larger circular depres-sions too) are also known as petroglyphs, and they date from the late Neolithic to the early Bronze Age, but nothing is actually known about what their purpose was for, and why they were carved; some think they are maps showing where springs, caves, settlements and other features are located, while others think they are maps of the stars in the night sky. These cup and concentric ring designs are similar to the carved mazes and may be linked to those features. There are other rocks and boulders bearing cup marks or cup and ring marks a few miles to the south such as William Walker’s Stone, Winter Hill Stone, Greystones Farm and Cob Stone. See the relevant site pages.
Related site pages:-
Winter Hill Stone: https://thejournalofantiquities.com/2014/09/14/winter-hill-stone-keighley-moor-west-yorkshire/
Grey Stones Farm: https://thejournalofantiquities.com/2016/10/13/greystones-farm-cup-marked-rocks-near-newsholme-dean-west-yorkshire/
Copyright © Ray Spencer, The Journal of Antiquities, 2023.
The Journal Of Antiquities 