This is the third of these I've found this past year. All on the moorland boundary wall at Howdale. I thought it was a 'cup-marked-stone', maybe four or five thousand year old. These stones are common enough in the UK, Ireland and elsewhere.
However the archeologist from our national park thought that it was a stone which was used at the base of a base stone socket for a door to swing on - a heel stone. These too were once common in farms/houses and I've even heard of discarded circular grind stones being used for them too in Ireland. I don't think this example was ever been used as the inside was perfectly unworn. It's now recorded and back in the wall it came from. (Howdale). There was a very old and partially blocked field entrance in the location where I found it. These were used before gates were hung using hinges were fixed to stooks using lead.
And here is a cup marked stone. This one is also from the same wall at Howdale.
There were some archeologists working on Brow Moor, so I took this picture and one of them confirmed it was a cupmarked stone.
This one is back in the wall too.
(The coin is a 50p )
(right) On the right hand side of this lintel over the sheep creep is a cup and ring marked stone. Its in the same stretch of wall as the above two examples. Although I rebuilt this length of wall the same year (2012) as I found these other stones, I only noticed the marks this during the summer this year when passing by. (grid ref NZ955016)
There were some archeologists working on Brow Moor, so I took this picture and one of them confirmed it was a cupmarked stone.
This one is back in the wall too.
(The coin is a 50p )
