Select - Belgium Denmark Eire France Germany Greece Italy The Netherlands Norway Portugal Republic of Malta Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom

England   Northern England   Durham

Eel Hill Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art Image © Brian Kerr 2008 Nearest Town: Barnard Castle (9km NNW) OS Ref (GB):     NZ051078 / Sheet: 92 Latitude: 54° 27' 55.1" N Longitude:     1° 55' 16.71" W Added by fitzcoraldo Images (3) Fieldnotes (2) Miscellaneous (1) 1 discussion topic Start a topic Show  |  Hide Web searches for Eel Hill Flickr Google Google Images MAGIC The Megalithic Portal Bing Stone Pages Streetmap.co.uk Wikipedia

- Sites within 20 km - - Barningham Moor (0.2km E) (34 posts) Osmonds Gill Cairn (0.32km SE) (2 posts) How Tallon (0.61km SSE) (18 posts) Frankinshaw Cairn (1.92km ESE) (3 posts) Osmonds Gill (2.19km E) (9 posts) Holgate (3.54km SE) (3 posts) Stone Man (4.98km E) (1 post) Castle Steads, Gayles (5.99km E) (4 posts) Booze (6.17km SSW) (4 posts) Gayles Moor (6.51km E) (29 posts) Castle, Nr Reeth (7.2km SSW) (7 posts) Low Feldom Farm (7.44km E) (0 posts) Cock Howe (8.45km SE) (1 post) Bowes Barrows (8.47km WNW) (1 post) Calverside Moor Neolithic Enclosure (8.47km SSW) (1 post) The Ravensworth Stone (8.87km ENE) (3 posts) Reeth Strip Lynchets (8.88km SSW) (3 posts) Grinton Round Barrow (9.36km S) (2 posts) Aske Moor (Silver Hill) (9.6km E) (1 post) Aske Moor (9.6km E) (0 posts) Mudbeck (9.67km WSW) (6 posts) Mudbeck (9.67km WSW) (3 posts) Deepdale (9.82km NW) (7 posts) Maiden Castle (Grinton) (9.99km SSW) (32 posts) Harkerside Moor Circle (10.31km S) (18 posts) Whitcliffe Scar (10.33km E) (2 posts) How Hill, Low Whita (10.67km SSW) (4 posts) Downholme (11.18km ESE) (3 posts) How Hill Swaledale (11.32km SE) (1 post) The Butter Stone (11.79km NW) (6 posts) Loup's Hill (12.67km WNW) (6 posts) Stanwick Fortifications (13.38km ENE) (3 posts) Goldsborough Rigg (13.62km WNW) (10 posts) Cotherstone Moor (14.04km WNW) (6 posts) Rey Cross (15.64km W) (7 posts) Baldersdale & Howsgill (15.79km WNW) (0 posts) Bracken Heads & Stobgreen Plantation (16.23km NNW) (4 posts) Piercebridge Barrow Alignment (17.49km ENE) (1 post) Thackwaite Beck (17.69km SSW) (1 post) Swinkly Knoll (17.74km NW) (1 post) Middleton Tyas - Five Hills (17.8km E) (1 post) Carperby (18.41km SSW) (12 posts) Carperby B (18.5km SSW) (3 posts) Smotherlaw (18.63km ENE) (0 posts) Eggleston (18.69km NW) (3 posts) Foggerthwaite Burnt Mound (18.98km NW) (1 post) Scorton Cursus (19.4km E) (5 posts) - Facilities within 20 km - - The Bowes Museum (Museum: 8.5 km N) Tan Hill Inn (Bed & Breakfast: 15.5 km WSW) The Tan Hill Inn (Pub: 15.5 km WSW)

- Add - - Add news Add an image Add fieldnotes Add folklore Add miscellaneous Add a link - Add a site Add a nearby facility Add an alternative name/spelling

Images (click to view fullsize)

Add an image

Fieldnotes

Add fieldnotes

Fitz made a very good choice of stone to seek. The front cover of the indispensable Laurie and Beckensall book has a photo of a glorious stone very similar to this. If I were them I'd have picked this one. It's a dahza! I'm stumped as to why the hill is called Eel hill though. Seems a bit peculiar, it's not near the sea, or any rivers that look like they'd have eels in them. It's an especially complex motif for the area, and is also conspicuous in that it is the only one on the summit of the hill, whilst the slope on the way up had oodles of marked stones though none with the such a clear cut bowl. It nicely connects the cairns etc (on the slopes below) to the mysterious atmosphere of Osmond's Gill . It's a special stone marking a special place. Comments (0)  |  Add a comment  |  Permalink

Posted by Hob 29th November 2004ce

It has taken me three visits to Barningham Moor to locate this gorgeous stone, I finally found it today with the help of Hob. The stone is located just west of the highest point of Eel hill and is in the perfect postion to look out over Barningham Moor to County Durham in the north and the Cleveland Hills to the east. A beautiful North Pennine stone. Comments (0)  |  Add a comment  |  Permalink

Posted by fitzcoraldo 26th November 2004ce

Miscellaneous

Add miscellaneous

Regarding Hobs comments on the origins of the name, Eel Hill. I recently read in Gearoid O Crualaoichs wonderful book, The Book of the Cailleach, that the eel is "an emblematically liminal creature in Irish tradition - part fish, part animal, believed to undergo reincarnation and , on occasion, to speak." I also discovered this little gem which discusses Iormungand, the world sea serpent also known as the Coiling Eel, daughter of Loki and Angrbod. " In these myths, we see a hint of the idea of the serpent as a symbol of the mother goddess; a role that Iormungand also performs. A link between the goddess and the serpent can be traced well back into the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. Significantly, images of the snake goddess from this period are often accompanied by coils, zig-zags, and meanders; all symbols of water." Source http://shadowlight.gydja.com/iormungand.html If we stretched the point we could also tie Iormungands symbols into the carvings on the hill and the nearby underground stream. Then again, Eel Hill just simply be a corruption of a previous name just as the OS have corrupted the name of the nearby gill from Osmonds Gill to Osmiril Gill. Comments (0)  |  Add a comment  |  Permalink

Posted by fitzcoraldo 13th March 2006ce Edited 13th March 2006ce