Celtic Headbangers

Over the years, stone heads have been found in the West Yorkshire area. It has presented archaeologists with a fascinating problem. Are the heads from the Celtic period? If they are, then they could date back as far as 2,300 BC. Celts lived in the area when West Yorkshire was in the kingdom of Brigantia and they revered the heads as fertility and good luck charms.

Enemies of the Celts had their heads severed and used as guardians at the entrances to houses and barns. In the Bradford area, many have been found placed in dry stone walls, in fields and above cottage doors where they are still visible to this day.

Many heads have been found in Scotland, Ireland and on the Continent, although there is a school of thought that some of the heads are no more than a century old. If this is the case, then surely it indicates that ancient Celtic beliefs may well have existed in the Industrial Revolution era and beyond to the present time.