Source/Archive record SCH9743 - Carved stones at Keckwick Hill, Daresbury, Cheshire

In January 2023 the author recorded cupmarks at two locations on sandstone outcropping at Keckwick Hill, Daresbury, Cheshire. One of the cupmarked panels featured a serpentine groove protruding from the edge of the cupmark. Other more eroded markings were present that might be archaeological and of earlier date. Overlying all the aforementioned were clusters of peck marks. Later markings, including modern graffiti, were also present in profusion. The serpentine is a motif that has affinities with megalithic rock-art from chambered cairns in north Wales and Ireland, as well as published rock-art in the Wirral and Liverpool from disturbed contexts. The Keckwick Hill panels are unique for being in situ examples in a region that has very few recorded panels at all. The relationship of the panels, in relation to their neighbours and their environmental context, as well as their character, attests to the importance of connectivity and routeways during later prehistory in this region.