The Twelve Apostles () is a

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially in Britain, Ireland, and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being built from 3000 BC. The be ...

near

Ilkley Ilkley is a spa town and civil parish in the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, in Northern England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Ilkley civil parish includes the adjacent village of Ben Rhydding and is a ward within the ...

and

Burley in Wharfedale Burley in Wharfedale is a village and (as just Burley) a civil parish in the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated in the Wharfedale valley. The village is situated on the A65 road, approximately north-west from Leeds, ...

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.

Location

Located on

Rombalds Moor Rombalds Moor is an area of moorland in West Yorkshire, England, between the Airedale and Wharfedale valleys. The towns of Ilkley and Keighley lie to its northern and southern edges, respectively. The moor is sometimes referred to as Ilkley Moor ...

which is found between

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" ...

and Burley Moor, the Twelve Apostles are located within the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

. The stone circle is slightly below and to the northeast of an east-west ridge at about above sea level. The circle is just over north-west of the nearby Grubstones circle.James Dyer, (2001), ''Discovering Prehistoric England'', page 230. Osprey Publishing.

Description

The Twelve Apostles consists of the remains of a stone circle with a diameter of about 15 metres.Rodney Castleden, (1992), ''Neolithic Britain: New Stone Age Sites of England, Scotland, and Wales'', page 259, Routledge. The circle originally had between 16 and 20 stones, but it is now reduced to 12 stones. The stones are made from the local millstone grit. All of the stones were fallen by the mid-20th-century and were lying loose upon the ground. The circle was inside a bank wide and high. The bank was still traceable in the 1920s but has apparently eroded since then due to visitors walking over the ground. At the centre of the circle was a small mound, which may have been the disturbed remains of a burial cairn. In 1971 a group of amateurs made an unauthorised attempt to re-erect the fallen stones, but the stones soon fell again. The stones have since been re-erected.Twelve Apostles - West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service
retrieved 7 November 2013 It is not clear who re-erected them, nor when. The site suffers severe visitor erosion, as it was formerly hidden beneath heather, but is now in an area of bare trampled soil. It is regarded as one of the most damaged prehistoric sites in

Notes

External links

*{{NHLE, num=1011763, desc=Twelve Apostles stone circle, Burley Moor Stone circles in England Archaeological sites in West Yorkshire