2 Foxes Stone - Danby Head

The 2 Foxes Stone - Danby Head
I.R
2 Foxes

I was first told about this stone by Author Tom Scott Burns in 1989. I never got around to visiting it until one wet and windy day this December 2018.  Easy enough to find with his instructions but I could not find  another inscription close by, recorded by T.S.B.   "....and low down to the left - "I.Peirson 1796"  - is inscribed upon another rock at ground level" .  The ground is extremely steep and pretty overgrown I could not find this stone.  Within the last few years there had been a cliff fall nearby to the 2 Foxes Stone.  It was raining and unpleasant so I didn't spend a lot of time looking.

The location for both stones is reached with some difficulty. (NZ 692024). From Botton in Danby Dale follow the track which runs south past High Farm, past the forest on your left, it then  ascends onto the moor on the east side of Danby Head, follow the track around  the edge of the wood on your right.  As the track descends towards the beck there is a gate.  At the top of the west side of the beck  there are a few small trees along a small broken crag. A very indistinct zig-zag takes you up to the right from where you can traverse to the rock face where  the 2 Foxes stone engraving is.

Peirsons were a family of Quakers in Danby Dale at one time and it may be a memorial to a hunting accident. Who knows?  Here is a picture of the Peirson Stone,  and the location  where it can be found.  I was unable to locate it even after another visit and much longer search.  Some of the crag appears to have fallen away and perhaps with it, the Peirson stone.

Photo taken by Jane Ellis and published by permission.  This photo was taken about 1988

Photo taken by Jane Ellis and published by permission.  This photo was taken about 1988.  I was unable to locate this feature and I'm assuming it has now collapsed.