Twelve Apostles, West Yorkshire

The Twelve Apostles (grid reference SE12614506) is a stone circle near Ilkley and Burley in Wharfedale in West Yorkshire, England.

Twelve Apostles
Shown within West Yorkshire
LocationWest Yorkshire
Coordinates53.9016°N 1.809494°W / 53.9016; -1.809494
TypeStone circle
History
PeriodsBronze Age

Location

Commonly said to lie on Ilkley Moor[1] and Burley Moor,[2] the Twelve Apostles are located within the parish of Burley in Wharfedale.[3] The stone circle is slightly below and to the northeast of an east-west ridge at about 381 metres above sea level. [3] The circle is just over 800 metres north-west of the Grubstones circle.[4]

Description

The Twelve Apostles consists of the remains of a stone circle with a diameter of about 15 metres.[5] The circle originally had between 16 and 20 stones,[1] but it is now reduced to 12 stones.[5] The stones are made from the local millstone grit.[1] All of the stones were fallen by the mid-20th-century and were lying loose upon the ground.[3]

The circle was inside a bank 1.2 metres wide and 0.6 metres high.[1] The bank was still traceable in the 1920s but has apparently eroded since then due to visitors walking over the ground.[3] At the centre of the circle was a small mound, which may have been the disturbed remains of a burial cairn.[1]

In 1971 a group of amateurs made an unauthorised attempt to re-erect the fallen stones, but the stones soon fell again.[3] The stones have since been re-erected.[6] It is not clear who re-erected them, nor when.[6] The site suffers severe visitor erosion, as it was formerly hidden beneath heather, but is now in an area of bare trampled soil.[3] It is regarded as one of the most damaged prehistoric sites in West Yorkshire.[6]

Notes
  1. Burl, Aubrey (2005). A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany. p. 91. ISBN 0300114060.
  2. Pevsner, Nikolaus; Leach, Peter (2009). The Buildings of England. Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North. Yale University Press. p. 218.
  3. Historic England. "Twelve Apostles (49847)". PastScape. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  4. James Dyer, (2001), Discovering Prehistoric England, page 230. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 0747805075
  5. Rodney Castleden, (1992), Neolithic Britain: New Stone Age Sites of England, Scotland, and Wales, page 259, Routledge. ISBN 0415058457
  6. Twelve Apostles - West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service, retrieved 7 November 2013
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