Thimbleby Moor

Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art
SE471958

Nearest town:

Northallerton (10km WSW)

OS reference:

SE471958

OS sheet:

100

Latitude:

54° 21' 19.08 N

Longitude:

1° 16' 30.71 W

Added to TMA by

fitzcoraldo

Images (3)
Fieldnotes (1)

Images

Image of Thimbleby Moor (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art) by fitzcoraldo

This is rock No.06 of the Western Sites in Prehistoric Rock Art in the North York Moors by Graeme Chappell & Paul Brown.
Immature terrier (uncalibrated) provides scale.

fitzcoraldo Jan 31, 2006

This is rock No.06 of the Western Sites in Prehistoric Rock Art in the North York Moors by Graeme Chappell & Paul Brown.
This lovely stone was discovered by Barbara Brown in 2003.
This photo does not do the stone justice but will have to do for now.

fitzcoraldo Jan 31, 2006

This is rock No.06 of the Western Sites in Prehistoric Rock Art in the North York Moors by Graeme Chappell & Paul Brown.
This lovely stone was discovered by Barbara Brown in 2003.

fitzcoraldo Jan 31, 2006

Articles

Thimbleby Moor

Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art

fitzcoraldo Jan 31, 2006

The first thing I should mention is that Thimbleby Moor and the surrounding area is heavily managed shooting land. It is not classed as access land under the new right to roam, it is classed as CROW access land with restrictions in place.
Unfortunately I wasn’t aware of this until I had returned from the moor, so if you are planning to visit the moor I suggest you contact Carter Jonas, Land Agent, Thimbleby Estates. This also applies if you want to visit the nearby Nine Stones.

I accessed the site via the footpath the leads from Oak Dale to Thimbleby. the path runs up from the dale through the woods. There’s a bit of an oppressive vibe about walking through the woods with lots of paths marked ‘no access’ and bird breeding areas fenced off with barbed wire. I guess this is neccessary when you have large groups of people roaming the estate blasting the birds with shotguns.
I accessed the moor via a small track and stile and followed the keepers road onto the moor proper.
The stone marked as stone No.6 in Chappell & Browns Prehistoric Rock Art in the North York Moors is beside this road.
The stone itself is beautiful, it’s one of those stones that the more you look and feel it, the more you see. Unfortunately the sun was lost behind clouds so photography was difficult.
There are other stones on the moor but they are currently beneath deep heather and to be honest with you the sound of lots of guns being fired nearby was somewhat off putting.
As I walked back into Oakdale I came across a large shooting party of 30 or so sportsmen and women all armed with shotguns and labradors. I stopped to chat to one of them who explained that today was the last day for shooting pheasants and that they would only shoot the cock birds. I left the dale to the sound of gabriel blowing his 12 bore horn for the cock birds of Oakdale.
I don’t think I’ll be going back to Thimbleby for a while.