Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 20771 44182
Also Known as:
- Carving no. 396 (Boughey & Vickerman)
Get onto the Chevin itself, a few yards north of the main path on the east-facing side. You’ll find it. It’s carved on an earthfast rock about 6ft long.
Archaeology & History
Otley Chevin's cup-and-ring stone
This is an excellent carving if you’re into cup-and-rings! Eric Cowling (1940) first described the stone* in an article for the Yorkshire Archaeology Society. Although somewhat faded, when the stone’s wet and the sun’s low on the horizon, you can make out more rings than just the three which Boughey & Vickerman (2003) counted in their survey.
Folklore
Although the Chevin itself has a history of ‘supposed’ heathen goings-on in bygone days, the carving has nowt specific said of it. Although one intriguing bit of info comes from the old Otley historian, Harold Walker (1974), who said that,
Eric Cowling's 1940 photo
“blocks of stone were sent from (the) Chevin to form the foundations of the Houses of Parliament”!
Those lying deviants probably smashed up a few bits of extra rock art when they did this — not that those sorta people care about anything other than money.
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Cowling, E.T., ‘A Classification of West Yorkshire “Cup-and-Ring” Stones,’ in Yorkshire Archaeology Journal, 97, 1940.
Cowling, E.T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
Walker, Harold, This Little Town of Otley, Olicana: Otley 1974.
*Graeme Chappell tells me that this carving was named after Cowling’s nickname, Knotty!
© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian
