spencer

The front door closes...my new fiancee off to Barcelona with daughters for a girlie minibreak....right, where’s the nearest archaeology to her place? Atop the Eston Hills, that’s where. Pfft... I scuttled off, parked at Flatts Lane Country Park and made my laborious way up the slippery, icy and muddy path up the scarp towards the Nab and its hillfort. Boy, was the see for miles view over Teeside worth it. One hell of a panorama. The rock art was my prime aim, but I couldn’t resist a detour to Mount Pleasant round barrow, with its view to Roseberry Topping en route. Retracing my steps to the scarp path I head for Carr Pond. I know from TMP that my goal is nearby, but, without GPS, finding it in two foot high heather was a swine. On the point of giving up after aligning myself with a photograph from four years previously and coursing to an fro I at last saw what I had come to see off to my right. Worth the hunt, close to two metres and plenty of cupmarks. A trig mark too, but so be it. Still well worth the effort. For those who may want to follow – have I really been the first since Fitzcorraldo fifteen years ago? – simply skirt round the eastern edge of Carr Pond. A reasonably clear path, not on OS, becomes visible. Follow it for about a hundred metres till you reach a patch of tall gorse on the paths right hand side. On your left there will be some nearby silver birch saplings. Leave the path and walk past them through the heather, aiming for a grassy patch beyond. The stone is 22 paces from the path. Simples. There are over thirty other examples of rock art lurking up here, apparently. Good luck.

A year ago I spent a fruitless hour in the gloaming driving up and down trying to find these giants and felt quite embarrassed by that failure...then a visit to these parts was an extreme rarity, but now, my life unexpectedly changed, I drive up and down the A1 by them several times a week ...funny old world. After finally spotting one recently after several attempts at rubbernecking while driving south to work, an opportunity to finally visit was not to be missed. For those without OS or GPS, all you have to do is turn on to the Roecliffe road in Boroughbridge and park where the new housing on the right side of the road ends. The southernmost stone, behind a gate with a blue plaque inset into a stone in front of it, will be in your left, while the other two can be seen over the hedge on the right side of the road. An ungated field entrance provides ready access. The field they are in was planted with beet when I visited, this being protected by a electric fence. Hi ho...however a walk round the field edge was still possible. Then, thankfully, a section of fence which had dropped to a height which would not cause injury to my most precious possessions and the realisation that the crop around the perimeter had been damaged beyond saleability spurred me to cross and inspect the beasts basking in the late afternoon sun at close quarters. OK, not Rudston, but still, standing next to one and cast your eyes upwards is a hugely impressive experience...plus there are cupmarks aplenty. The traffic noise from the A1 and the presence of new housing nearby cannot marr what still remains a must see site. Go if you can.