Rawland Howe round barrow on Lealholm Moor, 450m North of South View Farm

Reasons for Designation

Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrow, are funerary monuments dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age, with most examples belonging to the period 2400-1500 BC. They were constructed as earthen or rubble mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered single or multiple burials. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Often superficially similar, although differing widely in size, they exhibit regional variations in form and a diversity of burial practices. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally (many more have already been destroyed), occurring across most of lowland Britain. Often occupying prominent locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape and their considerable variation of form and longevity as a monument type provide important information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisations amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

Excavations of round barrows in the region have shown that they demonstrate a very wide range of burial rites from simple scatters of cremated material to coffin inhumations and cremations contained in urns, typically dating to the Bronze Age. A common factor is that barrows were normally used for more than one burial and that the primary burial was frequently on or below the original ground surface, often with secondary burials located within the body of the mound. The majority of round barrows in the region were dug into by 19th century antiquarians in search of burials and artefacts, leaving behind a central depression as evidence of their work. However, excavations in the latter half of the 20th century have shown that round barrows typically contain archaeological information that survives earlier digging. Sometimes a secondary burial was mistaken for the primary burial which was usually the goal of the antiquarian. Even when the primary burial has been excavated, further secondary burials often survive in the undisturbed surrounding part of the mound. Additional valuable information about the mound's construction and the local environment at the time will also survive antiquarian excavation. Excavation has also shown that shallow ditches immediately encircling the mounds are common, normally surviving as infilled features rather than as earthworks. The infill of these ditches will also contain valuable information about changes in the local environment from the Bronze Age onwards. Although Rawland Howe has been disturbed by unrecorded excavation, over 75% of the total volume of the original mound is considered to survive undisturbed, and the monument is thus considered to be of national importance.

Details

The monument includes the buried and earthwork remains of a prehistoric burial mound on Lealholm Moor. Additional burial mounds, which are the subjects of separate schedulings, lie 340m and 420m to the ENE, and 1140m and 1160m to the ESE. Rawland Howe is sited on the south side of the east-west ridge which links Danby Beacon and Lealholm Rigg and which thus forms Lealholm Moor. It is a large round barrow 16m in diameter standing up to 1.5m high. On the south side of the centre there is a 1m deep hollow, 3m across at its base and 5m in diameter at its top, left by an antiquarian excavation, the spoil from which now forms a lobe on the south side of the mound. This lobe includes two large stones both 1.5m across and at least 0.4m thick.

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:

30182

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Smith, M J B, Excavated Bronze Age Burial Mounds of Durham and N' land., (1994)

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