Prehistoric Rock Art in the Northern Dales

The authors present details of their new discoveries together with an up-to-date account of the known archaeology of the area in a comprehensive gazetteer of sites and locations. Paul Brown’s three-dimensional illustrations highlight the major panels of rock art in the key northern valleys of seven dales that span the three counties of North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Durham, including the charismatic dales of Swaledale and Wensleydale. Rock art, its situation within the prehistoric landscape and its relationship to other archaeological features, is clearly discussed.

Paul and Barbara Brown have been researching and studying rock art in Britain over two decades and the landscape of the Northern Dales is familiar home territory. They have contributed a considerable number of important new sites to the archaeological record that are described in detail including Copt Howe in Great Langdale, Cumbria and the recent discovery of a spiral that had been incorporated within a rock art panel on a former North Yorkshire Moor. The presence of a spiral, the first in these stunning northern Pennine dales, highlights the significance of its rock art and reinforces a possible route-way from the dales into Cumbria and links with the Passage Grave Art of the west coast and beyond into Ireland.