Badger Stone

This rock on Ilkley Moor is thankfully very accessible and is thought to be one of the best examples of rock art on the moor. There is certainly no mistaking the marks here - there are several large, obvious cups (the carved holes) and rings (the shallow grooves surrounding them) which date back to the late Neolithic period, around 5,000 years ago. I think this is the reason they are so fascinating - they have survived all of those winters out on the moors and are still visible to this day.

On first glance the marks appear to just be cups and rings, however, if you look more closely and get the right light on them, you'll see a much more intricate pattern with circles being linked up with 'grooves and gutters' and evidence of other unfinished symbols. All very curious! I've shared a picture of my boot next to one to give a sense of the scale of them - they are a lot bigger than I initially thought they would be.

So what did they signify? Well, good question. No one really knows, but archaeologists have a number of theories of what they could mean. Maybe they were maps, religious symbols, representations of the stars or waymarkers or maybe they were simply doodles, who knows. My unlikely theory was that they were painted in bright colours and used for target practice, but that wouldn't explain the grooves and gutters. What I found interesting about the Ilkley Moor rock art was that it was almost identical to some we've seen over 120 miles away in Northumberland. There must be some reason for this uniformity, but who knows what?

Research online suggests that the Badger Stone can be seen from other carved stones on the moor, such as the Weary Stone and the Neb Stone and this might be significant if they were used for mapping. They are often found in association with burial sites too, which supports the theory that the cup and rings represented religious symbols and maybe they had some ritual use. But these are all just theories and there is no way of knowing for sure.

We don't normally give away the location of these fascinating, prehistoric artworks, however, given this one is on Google maps, we thought it would be ok! If you check out an OS map, there are hundreds of others all over Ilkley Moor, so we won't spoil the fun of finding them for you! If you enjoy prehistoric history though, then a visit to Ilkley Moor is a must, as there are burial sites, rock art and stone circles everywhere you turn.

You can read more about rock art in our blog section: Rock Art in Northumberland. Thanks to Jane Brook for the information.