The Folly platform cairn
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Scheduled Monument
- List Entry Number:
- 1008066
- Date first listed:
- 04-Feb-1994
Map
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Location
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Derbyshire
- District:
- High Peak (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Hope
- National Park:
- PEAK DISTRICT
- National Grid Reference:
- SK 16819 82891
Reasons for Designation
Platform cairns are funerary monuments covering single or multiple burials and dating to the Early Bronze Age (c.2000-1600BC). They were constructed as low flat-topped mounds of stone rubble up to 40m in external diameter. Some examples have other features, including peripheral banks and internal mounds constructed on the platform. A kerb of edge-set stones sometimes bounds the edges of the platform, bank or mound, or all three. Platform cairns occur as isolated monuments, in small groups or in cairn cemeteries. In the latter instances they are normally found alongside cairns of other types. Although no precise figure is available, current evidence indicates that there are under 250 known examples of this class of monument nationally. As a rare monument type, exhibiting considerable variation in form, surviving examples are considered worthy of preservation. The Folly platform cairn is a large and well-preserved example and lies outside the main distribution area. It is an unusual form of barrow for the Peak District and is believed to be intact.
Details
The monument known as The Folly or Folly Ring is a type of platform cairn
including a sub-circular, flat-topped mound with a diameter of 25.5m by 21.5m.
It is c.1m high and steep sided, and has a hilltop location which overlooks
the Hope Valley in the northern gritstone moorlands of Derbyshire. No recorded
excavation of the monument has been carried out, but Evans, writing in 1912,
records the discovery of a polished stone axe though it is not known precisely
in what context it was found. Platform cairns generally date to the Early
Bronze Age but the axe may date The Folly somewhat earlier, to the Neolithic
period. The post and wire fencing that crosses the monument is excluded from
the scheduling although the ground underneath is included.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 4 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:
- 23268
- Legacy System:
- RSM
Sources
Books and journals
Barnatt, J, The Peak District Barrow Survey (1989), (1989)
Barnatt, J, The Peak District Barrow Survey (1989), (1989)
Other
Evans, ?, (1912)
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.
End of official listing
