Long barrow on Trainford Brow

Reasons for Designation

Long barrows were constructed as earthen or drystone mounds with flanking ditches and acted as funerary monuments during the Early and Middle Neolithic periods (3400-2400 BC). They represent the burial places of Britain's early farming communities and, as such, are amongst the oldest field monuments surviving visibly in the present landscape. Where investigated, long barrows appear to have been used for communal burial, often with only parts of the human remains having been selected for interment. Certain sites provide evidence for several phases of funerary monument preceding the barrow and, consequently, it is probable that long barrows acted as important ritual sites for local communities over a considerable period of time. Some 500 examples of long barrows and long cairns, their counterparts in the uplands, are recorded nationally. As one of the few types of Neolithic structure to survive as earthworks, and due to their comparative rarity, their considerable age and their longevity as a monument type, all long barrows are considered to be nationally important.

Despite some quarrying at the monument's centre and southern side, the long barrow on Trainford Brow survives reasonably well. It is one of a number of Neolithic and later prehistoric monuments situated in close proximity to Penrith and the Eden valley, and attests to the importance of this area in prehistoric times and the diversity of monument classes to be found here.

Details

The monument includes a partly mutilated long barrow located on Trainford Brow a short distance north of Lowther village. It is aligned east-west and includes a mound of earth and stones with maximum dimensions of 104m long by 24m wide. At its eastern end it measures up to 3.5m high but the barrow tapers down towards the western end where it measures approximately 1.5m high. A post and wire fence on the monument's northern side is excluded from the scheduling but the ground beneath it is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

23772

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
To KD Robinson at site visit, Dr. M Nieke, (1994)
FMW Report, Crow, J, Long barrow on Trainford Brow 1/2mile north of Lowther village, (1987)

End of official list entry

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