The Currick long cairn 710m north east of Cald Well

Reasons for Designation

Long cairns were constructed as elongated rubble mounds and acted as funerary monuments during the Early and Middle Neolithic periods (c.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 cairns appear to have been used for communal burial, often with only parts of the human remains having been selected for interment. Long cairns sometimes display evidence of internal structural arrangements, including stone-lined compartments and tomb chambers constructed from massive slabs. Some examples also show edge-set kerb stones bounding parts of the cairn perimeter. Certain sites provide evidence for several phases of funeral activity preceding construction of the cairn, and consequently it is probable that long cairns acted as important ritual sites for local communities over a considerable period of time. Some 500 examples of long cairns and long barrows, their counterparts in central and eastern England, are recorded nationally. As one of the few types of Neolithic structure to survive as a visible monument and due to their comparative rarity, their considerable age and their longevity as a monument type, all positively identified long cairns are considered to be nationally important.

Despite some past stone robbing, The Currick long cairn survives in fair condition. It lies close to other prehistoric monuments around Bewcastle and thus indicates 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 cairn known as The Currick. It is located within Kershope Forest 2.3km north east of Stelshaw Lodge and 710m north east of Cald Well. The cairn is aligned WNW-ESE and includes a partly scrub covered mound of stones up to 2m high and measuring 45m along its long axis by a maximum of 22.5m wide. It is wedge shaped in plan with the wider end to the east, where there is a hollow thought to be the site of a collapsed megalithic chamber. Two indentations about halfway along the cairn's long sides are thought to represent the position of two further megalithic chambers.

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:

27759

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, , Monuments Threatened or Destroyed, (1963), 13
Hodgson, K S, Trans Cumb and West Antiq and Arch Soc. New Ser. in Some Notes on Prehistoric Remains in the Border District, Vol. XLIII, (1943), 168-70

Other
FMW Report, Crow, J, Long cairn 230m NE of Stelshaw Lodge, (1988)

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