Butter Stone, Cotherstone Moor

3D Model

This small fluted gritstone boulder is a Grade II Listed Monument that sits in Cotherstone moor near the edge of Cotherstone village (Barnard Castle, County Durham) in Northern England. It was used during the plague of 1663–5 as an exchange point where towns people from Barnard Castle could leave money for dairy products left by the farmers of the region without making contact. It was reported in The Gentlemean’s Magazine (1857) that it was still local tradition for farmers to place butter and eggs on the stone and town inhabitants paid for them by placing money in a hollow. The hollow is a single cup mark on the top as the Butter Stone is also known as a “cup rook”.