Cottingley Rock Art

Two of a group of five carvings found in woods to the west of Cottingley, nr Shipley, West Yorkshire, England.

These stones are carved in the ‘cup and ring’ tradition (or style), which is generally believed to date from the late Neolithic – early Bronze Age period, approx 6000-4000 yrs ago. The largest of the stones has an unusual elaborate central design which incorporates cup marks, cups with rings, linear grooves and large enclosing rings. A natural fissure on the stone has been enhanced and continued to the stones edge, and two other linear grooves cut across other motifs in a N-S and E-W direction, with the former running parallel to the enhanced fissure.

If the name Cottingley rings a bell, this is probably because in 1917 two #%!@ famously took photographs of fairies besides a beck at the bottom of their garden. They hoodwinked some people, including the likes of Arthur Conan Doyle into believing the pictures were real - only admitted falsification in the 1980s.

Interestingly, there are several accounts of people seeing small (25cm tall), chattering red-bonneted folks in the area that disappear in a flash….. hhhmmm!!