Ilkley Moor – Weary Stone

Summary: The Weary Stone (or Weary Hill Stone) is located on Weary Hill in Ilkley Moor, It features intricate rock art with a complex cup and groove design.

  • Site type: Rock engraving
  • Number of motifs: 10
  • Motif/s: Cupmarks, Cup-and-Ring, Lines
  • Quality: 3/5
  • Condition of site: Good
  • K.S.J. Boughey and E.A. Vickerman, Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding (2003)

Located on Weary Hill (from which the stone derives its name), the Weary Stone (or Weary Hill Stone) is a small boulder with rock art which is surrounded by heath. It’s often confused with the nearby Weary Hill Road stone. (OS Grid Reference SE 10572 46336 / 53.913069, -1.840543).

IMG 9466 LR Ilkley Moor - Weary Stone

This Weary Stone has a complicated and unusual design with three main groups:

…cup joined by groove to inner component of large double ring, which is not complete, but has the double rings turning into double parallel grooves and running off the rock; 5 or 6 more cups, 1 with at least half a ring and others with more complex ring and groove arrangements.

Ilkley Archaeology Group
IMG 9470 LR Ilkley Moor - Weary Stone
IMG 9486 LR Ilkley Moor - Weary Stone
IMG 9480 LR Ilkley Moor - Weary Stone
IMG 9461 LR Ilkley Moor - Weary Stone

The Weary Stone is also known as:

  • ERA-2319
  • Boughey & Vickerman (242) / PRAWR 242
  • SAM 25397
  • PRN7236

Getting to the Weary Stone

The Weary Stone (and nearby Weary Stone 02 at SE 10614 46251 / 53.912304, -1.839907) is most easily accessed by taking Keighley Road in Ilkley. Continue up the 4WD road on foot from the carpark, and look for a faint trail into the heath that leads to the rock. The Ilkley Moor loop hike passes this site and a number of others on the moor.

More information

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to Hiking the World, and receive notifications of new posts by email. (A hike is added every 1-2 weeks, on average.)

Join 740 other subscribers

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Aboriginal Sites by National Park

Aboriginal Rock Art – Maroota and Marramarra NP
Located to the north-west of Sydney, just south of the Dharug and Yengo National Parks, Maroota has a high concentration of (known) Aboriginal sites. Many more Aboriginal heritage sites are located in the Marramarra National Park. The original inhabitants of the area were the Darug people.
Aboriginal Rock Art – Yengo National Park
Yengo National Park was an important spiritual and cultural place for the Darkinjung and Wonnarua People for thousands of years, and 640 Aboriginal cultural sites are recorded in the park and nearby areas.
Aboriginal Rock Art – Blue Mountains National Park
Red Hands Cave, Glenbrook (Blue Mountains)
The Blue Mountains National Park (and surrounding areas along the Great Western Highway) is thought to have over a thousand indigenous heritage sites, although much of the park has not been comprehensively surveyed. The Aboriginal rock sites in the Blue Mountains include grinding grooves, stensils, drawing and rock carvings.
Aboriginal Rock Art – Lane Cove
Over 40 sites have been recorded within the park; many were located along the river bank and were flooded by the building of the weir in 1938.