Round cairn on The Roaches
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Scheduled Monument
- List Entry Number:
- 1009042
- Date first listed:
- 19-Nov-1992
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Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Scheduled Monument
- List Entry Number:
- 1009042
- Date first listed:
- 19-Nov-1992
Location
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Staffordshire
- District:
- Staffordshire Moorlands (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Leekfrith
- National Park:
- Peak District
- National Grid Reference:
- SK 00107 63891
Reasons for Designation
Round cairns are funerary monuments covering single or multiple burials and dating to the Bronze Age (c.2000 - 700 BC). They were constructed as mounds of earth and stone rubble up to 40m in external diameter but usually considerably smaller; a kerb of edge set stones sometimes bounds the edges of the mound. Burials were placed in small pits, or on occasion within a box-like structure called a cist, let into the old ground surface or set within the body of the cairn. Round cairns can occur as isolated monuments, in small groups, or in large cemeteries. Their considerable variation in form and longevity as a monument type provides important information on the diversity of beliefs, burial practices and social organisation in the Bronze Age. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of preservation. Despite visitor erosion to the monument's surface, the cairn on The Roaches survives well. It is a rare survival in the Peak District of an unexcavated example of this class of monument.
Details
The monument includes a round cairn located on The Roaches at the highest point of a ridge. It is an oval mound of gritstone boulders and earth up to 2.5m high with maximum dimensions of 14.5m by 12.5m. The cairn has been added to the eastern side of a natural outcrop. It is not known to have been excavated. An Ordnance Survey triangulation column on the monument's summit is excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath is included.
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:
- 22441
- Legacy System:
- RSM
Sources
Other
SMR No 4087, Staffs SMR, Barrow, The Roaches,
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 Culture, Media and Sport.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 11-Jun-2026 at 19:39:34.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.