I took the high road home and headed over the Simonside Hills parking at Lordenshaws for a look at the view. There were a good few walkers about so I headed slightly off track to a cup and ring marked stone overlooking Rothbury. Above looking over the stone to Dove Crag and Simonside summit.
Haymaking in full progress in the Coquet valley below makes a patchwork in the warm sunshine which unfortunately reduces the excellent view due to haze. You have to be up here first thing for the view to benefit from the clear air.
Looking north to the Cheviot which appears still to be in cloud. I often wonder what the prehistoric people who carved the patterns on these and many other stones in Northumberland were thinking. Was it sacred worship, commemoration, fertilty rights or some sort of mapping.
This is a survey of the markings on the rock photographed above from Stan Beckensalls excellent book ' Northumberlands Prehistoric Rock Carvings ' which is an explanation and gazetteer of the numerous sites in Northumberland.
Given that the majority of sites have views and surround the major hilltop features of the county I wonder if they were trying to capture the only thing they couldn't touch. Prehistoric man had no concept of nothing (not needed till number arrived) so would he have been puzzled that the sky touched and sometimes enveloped the mountain but after climbing to the top he still couldn't touch it or is it just a circle (womb) and rod (phallus) thing?
Those rock carvings certainly are thought provoking. It's amazing to make physical contact with objects worked by people so long ago.
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