Round cairn at Gospel Hillocks, Cowdale

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1012595
Date first listed:: 10-Jun-1970

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Location

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1012595
Date first listed:: 10-Jun-1970
Date of most recent amendment:: 08-Jan-1991

Location

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

County:: Derbyshire
District:: High Peak (District Authority)
Parish:: King Sterndale
National Park:: PEAK DISTRICT
National Grid Reference:: SK 08706 71575

Reasons for Designation

The cairn is a well-preserved and rare example of an upland Neolithic/Bronze Age burial monument and is part of the rich Bronze Age landscape of the Peak District. Its proximity to an an earlier example is of additional importance. Excavation in the nineteenth century suggests the cairn was utilised over a long period of time, with secondary burials being inserted after the primary pit burial. Despite these early explorations, a significant proportion of undisturbed deposits are anticipated to survive within the cairn and the ditch. In addition, the ancient land surface will be preserved under the cairn.

Details

One of two cairns at Gospel Hillocks, lying c.100m apart. Measuring 14m x 13m in diameter and c.1m high, it was opened in 1896 and found to contain a pit under a large slab in which the primary burial had been laid: a crouched inhumation covered with a mixture of clay, leaves and charcoal and associated with burnt bones. Two later disturbed inhumations were found near the turf, along with flint flakes and additional burnt bones.

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:: 13208
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Barnatt, J, The Peak District Barrow Survey (1989), (1989)
Ward, J, 'Proc. Soc. Antiquities' in Proc. Soc. Antiquities (Volume 17), , Vol. 17, (1899), 310-12

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.