This lovely rock is a bit of an oddity.
Most of the other carved rocks on the moor have the carvings on their southerly face and so you view the carvings whilst looking over the escarpment edge and into the valley and the landscape beyond. This rock contradicts that. Many of the carvings are on the north face and so look back into the moor, the carvings on the ridge can only be viewed by climbing onto the rock itself. This would indicate that this rock may have had a different function from many of the other carved rocks on the moor.
You can’t miss this large rock as it stands next to a main track and is 5.5 metres long, 3 metres wide and stands nearly 2 meters tall. It can also be seen from some distance from many points around the area and is useful as a navigation aid on the northeastern part of the moor. I had visited this rock before and noticed a few cups and a worn ring but other than that had not given it much consideration, this time I gave it a closer look as I had read that it had many more cups and it turned out to be a revelation. I counted at least 60 cups and there could well be more as the southern face is heavily eroded and it is difficult to tell what’s man made and what’s natural. Some of the cups form a line along the ridge that separates the north and south faces and there are 5 rings along the top and I counted a further 4 on the north face. There is also a cup with a gutter and penanular that has been carved along a natural crack almost giving it the appearance of a human form or an ankh as well as a line of deep cups that follow a fold in the rock and whose purpose must surely be just decorative?
Just to the west is a small rock with 3 cups on a vertical surface that faces the Haystack.
20 April. Took the walk from the Cow and Calf up to Green Crag.The Haystack stands on its own on the skyline and begins the path past the Idol stone and Idol rock.
Once on the crag turning south to walk up to Lanshaw Delves, a good spot to view the Apostle stones, and also see the Great Skirtfull , and Little Skirtfull Cairns, arranged around you.
Back down via the flint knapping site on Woofa Bank, along the ridge to the Pancake stone, and back to car.
It's like going round visiting old friends now..........a brilliant morning.
Resolve to discover proper names and locations .
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Posted by fitzcoraldo
Posted by Chris Collyer
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