Round cairn 490m ENE of Rough Hill Tarn

Overview

Heritage Category: Scheduled Monument

List Entry Number: 1007365

Date first listed: 16-Aug-1995

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

National Park: LAKE DISTRICT

National Grid Reference: NY 49943 19543

Reasons for Designation

Round cairns are prehistoric funerary monuments dating to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They were constructed as stone mounds covering single or multiple burials. These burials may be placed within the mound in stone-lined compartments called cists. In some cases the cairn was surrounded by a ditch. Often occupying prominent locations, cairns are a major visual element in the modern landscape. They are a relatively common feature of the uplands and are the stone equivalent of the earthen round barrows of the lowlands. Their considerable variation in form and longevity as a monument type provide important information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

Despite recent dumping of rubble and slate on the monument's summit, the round cairn 490m ENE of Rough Hill Tarn survives reasonably well. It is not known to have been excavated and will contain undisturbed archaeological deposits within the cairn and upon the old landsurface beneath.

Details

The monument is a round cairn located on a north easterly facing slope 490m ENE of Rough Hill Tarn. It includes an irregularly-shaped mound of stones up to 0.4m high with maximum dimensions of 12m by 9m. There is a triangular- shaped earthfast boulder approximately 1m long incorporated in the cairn's southern side.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number: 22536

Legacy System: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Quartermaine, J, Askham Fell Survey Catalogue, (1992), 23
Other
Darvill, T, MPP Single Monument Class Descriptions - Bowl Barrows (1988), (1988)
SMR No. 1595, Cumbria SMR, Bampton, (1985)
To Quartermaine,J., Clare, T (County Archaeologist),

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.