The Idol Stone is one of the more well known engraved rocks in the Ilkley Moor / Rombalds Moor, which is thought to date from the Bronze Age. (OS Grid Reference SE 13265 45943 / 53.90947, -1.79956).
The flat-topped boulder has twenty-five cup marks been laid out in what appears to be deliberate pattern; there are eight cups in two lines of four, a line of seven cups inside a rectangular carving and another line of cups above that curve around one end of stone. The entire design is enclosed by an outer groove.
The Idol Stone was first documented in the 1880s:
First described by that old Victorian J. Romilly Allen (1882), he seemed equally impressed by it, calling it “the most beautiful specimen of prehistoric sculpture”; continuing: ‘The stone is of grit, and measure 3ft 2ins, by 2ft 6ins. Its upper surface is nearly horizontal, and has carved upon it cups varying in diameter from 2ins to 3ins. A row of cups in the middle of the stone are entirely surrounded by a groove. There is also a channel running round the outside. Single cups are often found encircled by one or more concentric rings; but it is very exceptional indeed to find several cups surrounded by a single groove, or to find the cups so symmetrically arranged as in the present instance.
The Megalithic Portal
The Idol Stone is also known as:
- Boughey & Vickerman (322)
- Hedges (157)
Getting to the Idol Stone
The Idol Stone is a fairly easy to reach rock art site on Ilkley Moor rock art sites to find; head up the moor along the trail opposite the Cow & Calf pub and continue about 1.2km up the slope (you’ll pass The Haystack along the way). The Ilkley Moor loop hike passes this site and a number of others on the moor.
More information
- The Megalithic Portal – Idol Stone
- The Northern Antiquarian – Idol Stone
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