Hob

This place lives up to the hype. Not a big panel, and a pretty cramped rock shelter, but such carvings! So well placed and superbly executed, a masterpiece of prehistory.

The motifs at Chatton are snazzy enough, but if you go to Chatton, make time for the ‘Neolithic Lino’ in the rockshelter. It’s right down at the bottom of the slope, so maybe nip down from the top, avoiding the outcrops, then walk along, especially if it’s wet, as the soil is v. loose and rather dodgy underfoot (besides, one should attempt to minimise erosion).

It’s a great place to see how carvings erode over the years, the motifs at the back are worndown where they’ve been exposed longer, whereas those at the front, which were turfed over until quite recently, still have their peckmarks plain to see.

My mind is not convinced by the alleged standing stone just up from the rockshelter. I think it’s equally likely it’s an erratic that’s simply fallen upright as it fell down the slope. There are many others which are at various angles.

Try though I did, I did not find this (again) today. Though the cairnfield is definitely there, and possibly enclosed, I was bamboozled by the crazy weathering on just about every damn stone, outcrop and boulder in this area. And the lovely lichen, some of which is in fruit, which was good to see.

Find that obscure rock art next time, maybe.

Mickleden Beck is a virtually intact prehistoric landscape. A walk along it from east to west is like wandering back through time. The lower end is still farmed today, and has field clearance still going on, within field boundaries unchanged in centuries. As you get a bit further along, past the curve, the remains of medieval settlement give way to BA field boundaries and cairns on either side of the beck.. Throughout the journey, the Neolithic looms omnipresent in the form of Pike O Stickle to your right.

This is such a gorgeously secluded place, the valley is 3-sided, with nice steep slopes on left and right, and when you get to the end, it just stops. Steep slope at the end too. The road to nowhere.It’s quiet too, the sound of the water babbling over the stones is lovely and soothing. Whilst you wander, you can engage in the obligatory game of spot the axe rough-out. We didn’t find owt particularly special, but there were a few bits of andesite that looked very much like the bits that flake off flint when it is knapped.

It’s worth keeping going to the end of the valley, as the sheepfold at the end is sufficiently peculiar to warrant a good pondering. It has two little rooms off to the side, like you’d see on the footprint of an excavated roundhouse. Combine this with a vague bank and ditch, it’s very tempting to think of it as being a re-used ancient dwelling. Maybe they used to polish axes here, you never know…

A good spot on top of the Pike would perhaps lend a view sufficient to show up all of the field boundaries/cairns and maybe help make sense of the confusing jumble of millennia still visible in this fantastic valley.

Oh, and the sheep are inexplicably fluffy. They try to look menacing, but they are just too fluffy to get away with it.

A relocated stone, this one is currently out of favour with the Archaeologists as it’s obviously not in it’s original context.

It currently resides next to the Chinese Pond in the gardens of Walington Hall, where it was placed in the 18th century, having been moved from it’s original position on the NE side of the Poind burial mound near Belsay, on the other side of Shaftoe Crags.

In it’s present state, it’s about 7ft tall, but was probably shorter when in a socket. It’s slightly squared base raises questions of possible interference by it’s re-locators and may also add weight to the argument that the Middleton stone, more or less halfway between Wallington and The Poind, may have also been shifted, as it too has a squared base with heavily weathered grooves and fluting on the top.

Rumour once had it that there was a circle in the vicinity of Shaftoe crags, and all 3 of these stones may have been part of it, it’s easy to imagine a Duddo-like small circle, with similar groovey-fluting.

Either way, this stone seems to have a bit of a ‘somebody-else’s-problem’ field about it in that many people visit Wallington and the Chinese Pond, yet few notice/remember this stone, despite it being smack bang next to the path.

In this position, it’s probably the most accessible of Northumbrtian prehistoric relics, but being in the grounds of the hall, you have to pay the entry fee.

The stone is fairly easy to find, it’s embedded into the south side of the bridge, just under the arch. When the Beckensall archive describes it a 80cm from the bridge, it’s not a typo.

There’s a convenient parking spot just on the bend of the road for those in cars, but beware the humpbacked bridge, it makes a blind summit, and has been the site of a few head-on dunches in the past, so beep as you approach. It’s fairly easy to get down to the stone, there’s a gate in the fence, and a permissive path.

If it’s dry, you’d be hard pressed to make out the rings unless the light was very low. Fortunately, there’s all this water right next to it, so the full motif is easy to moisten to bring out the detail.

I can’t help but think that the people who put it here may not have noticed it, and that there may be others in the immediate vicinity. Given the bridges proximity to the carvings still in situ at Middleton and Shaftoe crags, and the portables at Old Deanham, it’s a good chance there are more marked stones in the area waiting discovery.

Rumor has it there was once a large panel in the area, which has been covered over for a long time now. Hopefully it’s still there and hasn’t been broken up. Lots of the prehistoric stones around here have been broken and/or moved.

When you look at the map, it’s easy to think that it should be possible to get here from the north side of the river Coquet. There’s a nice dotted green line crossing the river, just to the west of the cliff. Do not be fooled. This may be a suitable fording place if the river is exceptionally low, but when I visited, the water came up to me waist and the current was strong enough to cause slight concern.

Still, it was worth it, as this is a unique collection of carvings.

There’s just enough room to scramble along the edge of the river below the cliff, but the ground is quite sandy and loose, and the overhangs mean that quite a bit of ducking and dodging is mandatory, so a hard hat may be another thing to add to the list of required kit.

The panels are spread along the cliff, at various heights. It’s worth checking the Beckensall archive link to get an idea of what’s there, but as yet, no-one has come up with a diagram of exactly where each panel is on the cliff. This isn’t surprising, as it’s a very 3-D surface, and making a decent diagram would be quite tricky. Besides which only nut-cases* are likely to actually go visit such an inaccessible panel of faint carvings, so there wouldn’t be much call for such a diagram.

The site has a quite powerful atmosphere, especially when you’re sitting hiding from the rain under the overhangs of the rockshelter. Perfect opportunity for pondering the whys and wherefores of the unusual motifs. They’re made all the more inscrutable by the lack of any other prehistoric remains in the vicinity, though Beckensall reports that years ago, it was said that there were possible burial mounds nearby.

One thing that occured to me on the way back to Warkworth, is that to a bod travelling up the Coquet from the sea, the hill directly above Jack Rock is the first one which affords a view of the omni-present Simonside. It also seems that the present level of the river is unlikely to have been the same when the carvings were made, but why this should be of any significance is difficult to pin down, other than vague thoughts of why some motifs are ‘up-a-height’, whilst others are ‘way-doon-below’.

* By which I mean, err, ‘Dedicated Rock Art Enthusiasts‘

Another route up to the moor is from the village of Askham, as you can see on the map. this allows a quick route to the top of Heughscar Hill. This allows a good vista over Moor Divock, without having to get all knackered going up the High Street. With a pair of binoculars you can probably make out a lot of the stones and cairns. Without them, you can sort of see the way down to the Cockpit and White Raise.

There are a couple of nice pubs in askham too.