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I haven't kept up with the plans to turn this amazing place into a quarry, but it seems from my experience that some so-called pagans are helping the process along.
I stayed there one full-moon night last year (around October), and the scene was wonderful for my first visit. There were naturally a bunch of other people there. Me and my friend Lee chatted to a few of them - they said they had met at a gay/bi pagan camp down south and were doing a ritual later on. They seemed cool, but we were tired and crashed before their ritual started.
Well, actually, before we got to sleep we were treated to the utterly bizarre spectacle of a large bunch of schoolkids being led around the circle by a few adults, singing really pagan-sounding nursery rhymes. They ended up doing the congo of onto the moonlit moor! Better education than I ever had...
Waking the next morning, Lee asked if I had heard anything during the night. Apart from the kids, no. He said he had heard what sounded like some sort of ritual, but it was interspersed with what sounded frighteningly like rocks being violently bashed together. I got up to look around, and sure enough, the few half-bricks and rocks that were scattered around the circle the night before were gone. A few of the circle's stones had had chunks hacked off, with the tell-tale compacted bumps of soft rock left by bricks or whatever being smashed on them. Fragments littered the floor.
We were incensed, but there was no sign of life in any of the many tents around. We had to leave early, and as we didn't want to shout blind abuse at sleeping people who may or may not have been responsible, we had to leave the arsehole culprits be. As far as I'm concerned, if they're out there seriously trying to mesh with the pagan levels of reality, and doing *this* to stone circles, they're cursing themselves anyway. Hope they have a really bad freak-out some day and wake up.
Object lesson: the outward appearance of funkitude often belies a nature as stupid as any lager lad.
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This moor, sandwiched between the beautiful Wharfedale valley to the north and Bradford city to the south, is one of the most inspiring, mystery-riddled places I know of. The famous Ilkley Moor is merely a part of it - although it is this particular area, to the north near Ilkley town and the River Wharfe (sacred to the snake goddess Verbeia) that is most densely populated with fabulous cup-and-ring carvings and strange, strange tales both old and new. The best I can do here is recommend a few spots (get OS Sheet SE 04/14 Pathfinder 671 of Keighley & Ilkley):
- Up Backstone Beck, opposite the dishevelled but still-buzzing Backstone Circle (OS 1261 4613), are the remains of a Bronze Age dwelling (OS 1310 4590). It goes much further back than that, though - archaeologists have found evidence of Mesolithic dwellings here, perhaps 10,000 years old or more.
- As you approach the more from Ilkley town, the White Wells (old spa bath, presently a tea-and-cakes place) become obvious. To the west is a clump of trees with a waterfall beneath it flowing onto a ford (OS 1155 4660). This mound is a really special place. Local people leave wreaths to dead loved ones here. At the top of the mound is a massive carved boulder, too. When looking at the mound from below, I imagine the waterfall to be sacred fluids flowing from a cunt, and the mound to be the prone form of the local goddess Verbeia. The two stream either side even correspond to the image on her altar (which you can still see in All Saints' Church in Ilkley town, next to the bridge over the Wharfe - well worth a peek).
- The Badger Stone (OS 1108 4605) is fantastic, such a seductive curve to the boulder - though sadly the prolific carvings are fast fading. A very powerful place, I've found - treat it with respect.
- The Swastika Stone (OS 0956 4695) is a must - a wonderful curvy armed cross carved at least 3000 years before the Nazi's decided they had a monopoly on this ancient symbol. Extreme right-wing graffiti and stickers have been spotted up here - but their attempts to associate themselves with the archaic petroglyph merely underlines their simple-minded dumbfuckness. Sadly enclose by railings due to graffiti - be sure to look past the Victorian copy at the front to the fainter original.
- The Doubler Stones (OS 0722 4649) are great. Totally natural (apart from the basins and cups on top), they basically look like two ginormous mushies. Watch out for the close-by farmer, especially if you're looking for the smaller organic cousins of the stones...
- The Buck Stones (OS 0920 4560) are again a natural formation, and again are great. A bit of a mess compared to the beautifully sculpted Doubler Stones, but there's the power - a very primal, raggedy place.
There's much more to discover, and I'll leave my review brief so that you have fun exploring for yourselves. And remember to take more litter away than you bring!
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