Round cairn and ancient boundary wall and ditch 450m WNW of The Blue Stone Farm

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 the partial removal of its south east quarter the cairn 450m WNW of Blue Stone Farm remains a good example of its class. It will contain valuable archaeological information within the cairn relating to its structure and the use. Environmental evidence relating to the landscape in which it was constructed will be preserved sealed on the old land surface beneath the mound. It is one of several such monuments which occur on Titterstone Clee Hill and, as such, contributes information relating to the intensity of settlement, nature of land use, burial practices and social structure of the prehistoric community occupying this area of upland during the Bronze Age. The significance of the cairn is enhanced by its position and status as a named mereing point (boundary marker) on the parish boundary. The parish boundary wall and ditch itself is of interest at this point as a major structure deliberately superimposed on the cairn to use the cairn as a boundary mereing mark.

Details

The monument includes the remains of a cairn and an adjacent section of wall and ditch forming an ancient parish boundary situated on the north east facing slope of Titterstone Clee Hill. The cairn remains visible as a turf covered, stony mound, semi-circular in plan with the straight edge of the mound 7m long and lying along the edge of the ditch and wall which forms the parish boundary. It measures 5m across its truncated north west to south east axis and stands 0.5m high. The surrounding ditch, from which material would have been quarried for the construction of the mound, is no longer visible though one will survive around the cairn as a buried feature (beneath and beyond the wall and ditch to the south east as well as to the west and north) with an estimated width of 1m. The section of the ancient wall and ditch which cuts the mound is included to protect its stratigraphic relationship to the cairn. The wall stands 0.8m high and is 0.5m wide and the ditch is 1m deep and 1.5m wide.

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:

19150

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
RCHM archive text.,
RCHM archive text,

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