Standing Stone, Old Wife’s Stones Way

A leisurely saunter into the morning sunshine across the ancient expanse of Danby Rigg on the Old Wife’s Stones Way. A timely shower to the west served as a fitting backdrop to this squat yet impressive standing stone.

The route, considered no older than medieval times, is lined with tall, slender standing stones, save for this particular one, often dubbed the Old Wives’ Stone. Now, is it the Old Wife’s Stone?

I’ve seen both in writing. The track, stretching from Ainthorpe to Fryup Dale, is marked on the 1857 O.S. 6″ map as Old Wife’s Stone Way. Its age lends some weight to this nomenclature, so that’s the one I lean towards. Additionally, the same map pinpoints two stones halfway down Crosley Bank into Little Fryup Dale as ‘Old Wife’s Stones’.

Anyway, back to this standing stone, haloed by the rainbow, it proudly stands within a Bronze Age ring cairn. As is the case with many monuments on Danby Rigg, we’re indebted to the observations of the Rev. Canon Atkinson from the late 19th century for our initial insights into this site. This knowledge was then supplemented by the descriptions of Frank Elgee and has been further investigated by modern archaeologists¹A.F. Harding, J. Ostoja-Zagórski, Elizabeth Healey, Judith Turner & M.J. Alexander (1994) Prehistoric and Early Medieval Activity on Danby Rigg, North Yorkshire, Archaeological Journal, 151:1, 16-97, DOI: 10.1080/00665983.1994.11078120.

• 1
  A.F. Harding, J. Ostoja-Zagórski, Elizabeth Healey, Judith Turner & M.J. Alexander (1994) Prehistoric and Early Medieval Activity on Danby Rigg, North Yorkshire, Archaeological Journal, 151:1, 16-97, DOI: 10.1080/00665983.1994.11078120