Cairnfield, 580m ENE of Stanage House

Reasons for Designation

The East Moors in Derbyshire includes all the gritstone moors east of the River Derwent. It covers an area of 105 sq km, of which around 63% is open moorland and 37% is enclosed. As a result of recent and on-going archaeological survey, the East Moors area is becoming one of the best recorded upland areas in England. On the enclosed land the archaeological remains are fragmentary, but survive sufficiently well to show that early human activity extended beyond the confines of the open moors. On the open moors there is significant and well-articulated evidence over extensive areas for human exploitation of the gritstone uplands from the Neolithic to the post-medieval periods. Bronze Age activity accounts for the most intensive use of the moorlands. Evidence for it includes some of the largest and best preserved field systems and cairnfields in northern England as well settlement sites, numerous burial monuments, stone circles and other ceremonial remains which, together, provide a detailed insight into life in the Bronze Age. Also of importance is the well preserved and often visible relationship between the remains of earlier and later periods since this provides an insight into successive changes in land use through time. A large number of the prehistoric sites on the moors, because of their rarity in a national context, excellent state of preservation and inter-connections, will be identified as nationally important.

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 occasions their distribution pattern can be seen to define field plots. Occasionally, some of the cairns were used for funerary purposes although without excavation it is difficult to determine which cairns contain burials. Clearance cairns were constructed from the Neolithic period (from c.3,400 BC) although the majority date from the Bronze Age (2,000-700 BC). Cairnfields can also retain information concerning the development of land use and agricultural practices as well as the diveristy of beliefs and social organisation during the prehistoric period. The cairnfield 580m ENE of Stanage House is well-preserved and will contribute to understanding of prehistoric settlements on Eyam Moor

Details

The monument includes a prehistoric cairnfield located on a bluff of moorland on the western side of Eyam Moor. It is one of a group of similar monuments providing evidence of extensive prehistoric agriculture and settlement on Eyam Moor. The monument comprises a series of well-preserved cairns of medium and small stones gathered in prehistoric times as the result of agricultural land clearance. There are up to ten small cairns ranging from about 1.5m to 4m in diameter, some of which are irregular in shape. Most of the cairns are complete. The cairnfield stands on a bluff on otherwise sloping ground and was probably a component of a larger cairnfield extending to the north and north east. This cairnfield is separated from the other prehistoric remains on the moor by areas of stony, steeply-sloping and potentially boggy ground. The size and location of the cairns, together with indications of linear clearance, indicates that they are the remains of an area of agricultural settlement and land clearance dating to the Bronze Age.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 3 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:

31239

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Barnatt, J W, Derbyshire Archaeological Journal in Bronze Age Remains on the East Moors of the Peak District, Vol. 106, (1986), 70-1

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.