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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/05/marks-rocks-since-bronze-age-ilkley-yorkshire
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| People have been leaving their marks on these rocks since the bronze age | People have been leaving their marks on these rocks since the bronze age |
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| On the horizons surrounding Wharfedale, snow, sky and space are warring in spectacular ways; white clouds roll over the white moors like billows of steam, vaporising the distinction between both, and the sun occasionally provides episodes of dazzling icy brightness. Winter’s sorcery has turned Rombald’s Moor into a convincing impression of blizzard-swept Arctic tundra a few miles from the middle of Bradford. Undeterred, the weekend visitors are out in force around the great millstone grit forms of the Cow and Calf above Ilkley. | On the horizons surrounding Wharfedale, snow, sky and space are warring in spectacular ways; white clouds roll over the white moors like billows of steam, vaporising the distinction between both, and the sun occasionally provides episodes of dazzling icy brightness. Winter’s sorcery has turned Rombald’s Moor into a convincing impression of blizzard-swept Arctic tundra a few miles from the middle of Bradford. Undeterred, the weekend visitors are out in force around the great millstone grit forms of the Cow and Calf above Ilkley. |
| Like many of the tors, outcrops and escarpments dotting the gritstone Pennines, this imposing crag and its smaller counterpart together act as a natural gathering point for the surrounding civilisation. Climbers climb them; children instinctively recognise them as venues for play; adults stride to the lip of boulders and strike noble poses for phone cameras. Spend any time people-watching at the nearby Brimham Rocks, Almscliffe Crag or the Chevin and see further evidence of how we are innately drawn towards wild rock formations. | Like many of the tors, outcrops and escarpments dotting the gritstone Pennines, this imposing crag and its smaller counterpart together act as a natural gathering point for the surrounding civilisation. Climbers climb them; children instinctively recognise them as venues for play; adults stride to the lip of boulders and strike noble poses for phone cameras. Spend any time people-watching at the nearby Brimham Rocks, Almscliffe Crag or the Chevin and see further evidence of how we are innately drawn towards wild rock formations. |
| On the Cow and Calf, the historical evidence for this instinct is indelibly marked: parts of them are covered in a huge ad hoc tattoo of mostly Victorian chiselled graffiti, dating from Ilkley’s spa town heyday. There are occasional declarations of love and outbreaks of Wesleyan religiosity, but the typical format is a simple name and date; enough to record an individual life and make a stab at immortality. | On the Cow and Calf, the historical evidence for this instinct is indelibly marked: parts of them are covered in a huge ad hoc tattoo of mostly Victorian chiselled graffiti, dating from Ilkley’s spa town heyday. There are occasional declarations of love and outbreaks of Wesleyan religiosity, but the typical format is a simple name and date; enough to record an individual life and make a stab at immortality. |
| A contemporary environmental sensibility would rightly discourage this; you can trace its growth by the relative paucity of recent dates. But in the context of an area with 400 known rock carvings dating from the bronze age – a time when the moor was inhabited, not just visited – it can be seen as an expression of something intrinsic to the human experience. Ilkley Moor’s Twelve Apostles stone circle is an example of people using rock to create cultural significance, harnessing its aura of longevity to underpin their own presence. On the Cow and Calf, the rocks are “humanised” not through rearrangement but by a piecemeal process of defacement. Like it or not, they have become monuments to our longing to anchor ourselves in the world, and at least in part to our ageless fascination with wild stone. | A contemporary environmental sensibility would rightly discourage this; you can trace its growth by the relative paucity of recent dates. But in the context of an area with 400 known rock carvings dating from the bronze age – a time when the moor was inhabited, not just visited – it can be seen as an expression of something intrinsic to the human experience. Ilkley Moor’s Twelve Apostles stone circle is an example of people using rock to create cultural significance, harnessing its aura of longevity to underpin their own presence. On the Cow and Calf, the rocks are “humanised” not through rearrangement but by a piecemeal process of defacement. Like it or not, they have become monuments to our longing to anchor ourselves in the world, and at least in part to our ageless fascination with wild stone. |