Robin Hood's Bed (Blackstone Edge)

Locality
Coordinates	53.643878, -2.043532
Adm. div.	Lancashire
Vicinity	On Blackstone Edge
Type	Natural feature
Interest	Robin Hood name
Status	Extant
First Record	1851

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Approximate location of Robin Hood's Bed.

Robin Hoods Bed, looking north / The Northern Antiquary: Robin Hood’s Bed, Blackstone Edge, Lancashire.

The feature that gave the site its name / The Northern Antiquary:
Robin Hood’s Bed, Blackstone Edge, Lancashire.

Robin Hood's Bed / John Daly.

File:Robin hoods bed lancs postcard.jpg

View towards Robin Hood's Bed from nearby Lydgate / Undated postcard; early 20th cent. Private collection.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2014-09-18. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-05-08.

According to Dobson & Taylor, Robin Hood's Bed is a "name applied to whole or part of the prominent ridge of Blackstone Edge in the Pennines". They note that neolithic flints have been found at this site.^[1] While it is true that the name is sometimes applied to the entire ridge, there is no doubt that, as noted on Northern Antiquary's informative page on this locality, what suggested the name is a rock which "overlooks the very edge of the ridge, detached from the main section, with a large and very curious nature-worn ‘bed’ on its very crown" that is c. 125 cm wide and c. 215 cm long. This "bed" has a roughly horseshoe shaped ridge. Blackstone Edge forms a border between Lancashire and Yorkshire.

"Robin Hood's Bed" is indicated twice on the 1851 6" O.S. of the area, for the specific geological feature and for the ridge on which it is found. The later 6" O.S. maps include the name for the specific feature only.

Robin Hood is supposed to have slept in the bed and to have used this lofty locality as a look-out from which he could conveniently survey the Roman road below. He also amused himself by flinging a boulder all the way to Monstone Edge, where it remains under the names of the Manstone (Man Stone) or Robin Hood's Quoit.

Paul Bennett (Northern Antiquary) also notes that the locality is mentioned in records of the township of Rishworth in 1836. A slightly older mention is found in the 1775 Allusion below.