The Nebstone is a notable rock found close to the Swastika Stone on the northern edge of

Ilkley Moor Ilkley Moor is part of Rombalds Moor, the moorland between Ilkley and Keighley in West Yorkshire, England. The moor, which rises to 402 m (1,319 ft) above sea level, is well known as the inspiration for the Yorkshire "county anthem ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. It has the appearance of the lid of a

grand piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

, and is located a few hundred yards to the west of the Keighley Road. Like many of the rocks on Ilkley moor, it bears evidence for

cup and ring mark Cup and ring marks or cup marks are a form of prehistoric art found in the Atlantic seaboard of Europe (Ireland, Wales, Northern England, Scotland, France (Brittany), Portugal, and Spain (Galicia) – and in Mediterranean Europe – Italy (in Alp ...

s, although for such a prominent rock it has relatively few possible cup marks. There is no real consensus as to the actual purpose of the cup and ring marked stones on Ilkley Moor although it is postulated that they were used to mark ownership of land or mark the location of settlements. They have been dated somewhere between 3500 and 2500 years old.

References

Stone Age sites in England Archaeological sites in West Yorkshire Petroglyphs Ilkley {{WestYorkshire-geo-stub