Richard sent me an e-mail on Friday inviting me to join the wonderful Mr Bennett and himself at Eastwoods to have a look at their lovely discovery, have a hunt for any more carved stones and witness Mr P. Bryan from EH apply his astounding photogramic tricknological techniques to the stone. Who could refuse such an invitation?
This morning, after a bit of a lairy start, teenage daughters - don't ask! I set off for Nidderdale. The daughter thing resolved, I drove south in brilliant sunshine. After crossing the foggy Vale of York I ascended into the foothills of the Pennines and promptly got lost - nowt new for me and a quick call to Rich and Paul got me back on track.
After meeting up with Paul and Rich we checked out a couple of nearby bits and bobs including a carved stone and some interesting earthworks and then took off for the new stone. The stone is in a field that is littered with large gritstone boulders and earthfasts, the field is on an east facing slope of Nidderdale and is surrounded by pasture on three sides and a beautiful ancient birch woodland.
At this point I could bang on about the lovely carved stone but I won't. Its Paul and Rich's discovery and they can give a far more accurate account of the stone than I ever could. What I will say is that it was an absolute joy to watch these two fellas doing the business trying to decipher all the various elements of this lovely stone, tracing and debating every little line of the stone, watching the stone as the light changes, dancing around the stone chasing shadows and then dropping to their knees to feel their way along possible grooves. It was an absolute pleasure to witness.
Sitting watching these two lovely blokes trying to get to grips with this stone sort of sums up what this rock art malarky is all about and illustrates how terms like 'professional' and 'amateur' are pretty much meaningless when it comes to the discovery and recording of British Rock Art.
RICH the MAXIMALIST
Maximalist (n) opposite to minimalist
Every time I've been out with Rich he has astounded me with a new piece of kit, a camera, monopod, tripod, water sprayer, you name it Rich has uncomplainingly lugged it up to a site and tried it out. Give him his due, his dogged determination to experiment with new kit is extremely admirable and somehow, in a way I can't really explain, seems to be a very British approach.
Today, Rich out-did himself, staggering away from his car with all his usual paraphenalia plus a full size spade plus a very large blue bucket.
(To our shame neither Paul or I offered to help him with his burden but chose instead to take the piss....sorry Rich. In hindsight the big blue bucket was an excellent idea).
I gotta say, I had a crackin' day.
cheers Rich and Paul
Hi Folks,
We were watching a show on the discovery channel this morning all about the extreme conditions in Australia. The start of the show was all about aboriginal rock art around the Ayres Rock area or as it is now known Uluru, its aboriginal name. I am sure i have seen some of these carvings before when looking at some of the work done by Maarten. I was able to grab some pics from the screen, how sad am i?...thank god i have sky+, lol..anyway here they are.
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Hello folks , Went to the RA and megalithic monument desert of Glen Lyon on Sunday to see if I could find anything . Managed to find a couple of marked rocks , just cups and a single cup marked slab by a shieling , Graeme would like the Mckenzie association . Lower down was more interesting a rock shelter with a rock covered in sheep shit but bearing 19 well preserved cups . To have engraved the cups the engraver would have had to face the away from the spectacular view and face the shelter wall , good echo in the immediate vicinity
Sitting watching these two lovely blokes trying to get to grips with this stone sort of sums up what this rock art malarky is all about and illustrates how terms like 'professional' and 'amateur' are pretty much meaningless when it comes to the discovery and recording of British Rock Art.
RICH the MAXIMALIST
Maximalist (n) opposite to minimalist
Every time I've been out with Rich he has astounded me with a new piece of kit, a camera, monopod, tripod, water sprayer, you name it Rich has uncomplainingly lugged it up to a site and tried it out. Give him his due, his dogged determination to experiment with new kit is extremely admirable and somehow, in a way I can't really explain, seems to be a very British approach.
Today, Rich out-did himself, staggering away from his car with all his usual paraphenalia plus a full size spade plus a very large blue bucket.
(To our shame neither Paul or I offered to help him with his burden but chose instead to take the piss....sorry Rich. In hindsight the big blue bucket was an excellent idea).
I gotta say, I had a crackin' day.
cheers Rich and Paul
Hi Folks,
Suzanne & myself went for a long walk yesterday (8miles)..along the southern upland way in Galloway, we found what could be described as cup marks, everywhere..... I have taken a few pictures of one outcrop to show you, but although they do look good, i am afraid they seem no more than volcanic bubbles, or pebble holes..(could be wrong though,lol), some do look good, but with the lack of peck marks, i am sure they are natural. Some seem to be in perfect order, one rock had 3 large cups, in a perfect triangular shape, that made me think...but again no peck marks..It does seem to prove that when it comes to cup marks, we need to be careful..
These are some of the pictures i took..
Although not cup marks, still interesting.
Brian
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Howdo peeps,
Just in case you’re wondering what George is on about on the ‘Eastwoods’ post, Paul & mi sen were out stone bovering on Monday & Mr B sniffed out a rather wonderful, but weird panel. It was turf covered apart from about 20cm of a curving groove, so we had to excavate it.
Whilst unearthing it, I think between us we must have said “this is f-ing weird” about 200 times. The bisecting grooves did kinda remind of the Hangingstones ‘water boatmen’, but it is a bit of an oddun, especially the handle & central cup .
You’ll have to excuse the rather crappy drawing, this is my 2nd version & I think Pauls on his 4th . Neither of us are really happy that we’ve managed to capture the true motif. Hopefully, we will have by the end of next week.
