Cairnfield in Honley Old Wood, 280m north west of The Woodlands

Reasons for Designation

Cairnfields are concentrations of cairns sited in close proximity to one another. They often consist largely of clearance cairns, built with stone cleared from the surrounding landsurface to improve its use for agriculture, and on occasion their distribution pattern can be seen to define field plots. However, funerary cairns are also frequently incorporated, although without excavation it may be impossible to determine which cairns contain burials. Clearance cairns were constructed from the Neolithic period (from c.3400 BC), although the majority of examples appear to be the result of field clearance which began during the earlier Bronze Age and continued into the later Bronze Age (2000-700 BC). The considerable longevity and variation in the size, content and associations of cairnfields provide important information on the development of land use and agricultural practices. Cairnfields also retain information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisation during the prehistoric period.

This cairnfield survives well and will retain important archaeological information including the settlement connected with it. It is similar to two other cairnfields in woods in the Honley area, which are the subject of separate schedulings.

Details

The monument includes a cairnfield in Honley Old Wood, 280m north west of The Woodlands. It occupies the edge of a plateau and is bounded on its north side by the gritstone escarpment. The cairnfield is composed of approximately 17 cairns, between 2.5m and 8m in diameter and up to 1m high. Several of the larger cairns have been robbed for stone, leaving crescent-shaped stone banks. Most of the undisturbed cairns are subcircular, but two are more elongated and may have formed part of stone banks. Two rubble banks lie at an angle to each other near the southern edge of the cairnfield. These are typically 3m wide and 0.3m high. North of the rubble banks, at the south side of the main group of cairns, is a shallow circular hollow about 9m in diameter which may be a hut circle.

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:

31505

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
Cairnfield and bank, Marriott, J, Honley Old Wood, (1986)

End of official list entry

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