The Cup-and-Ring Stones

We walked on Ilkley Moor today….famous for a song about the perils of being hat-less….but, more significantly, an extremely important site of prehistoric rock art.

I was so lucky….because I bumped into a man who just happened to be an expert on the subject.  He showed me the neolithic carvings on a couple of the solitary rocks - the scooped-out cup shapes surrounded by one or more rings – and filled me in on lots of fascinating stone age history.

I find it utterly astonishing….the way the landscape connects me in such an immediate way with people who lived thousands of years ago.  I can look at a rock and see pretty much what they saw.  I can touch with my hands the marks they made with theirs.

It’s extraordinary.

Comments

[Lise Meijer]

Wauw Helen, the way you describe the transference that happens when you tune into the nature of a place is moving. I almost got shivers reading this. I had some similar experiences in my life, visiting old castles with someone who really know about the essence of what happened in the place, and suddenly you find yourself FEELING exactly how it was back then, in a different time. Very special indeed.