A northern thing? Not entirely.
Pete, you're the exception to prove the rule :)
When it comes to hardness of stones, owt would seem soft if you're used to sarsen. I think the texture is key to definite evidence of humans faffing about making cupmarks. Those Fyfield cups do look more ground than pecked. I reckon if the folk back then knew that the local stone could be worn smooth (e.g. the polishers), they might have modified pre-existing natural cups at Fyfield by smoothing them. Other than the pollishing stones, I can't think of anything at WKLB that's as smooth as the cups on Fyfield.
