Cairn 600m south of Raven Tor

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 as 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.

Round cairns are prehistoric funerary monuments dating to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They were constructed as stone mounds covering single or multiple burials. These burials were placed within the mound in stone-lined compartments called cists. Often occupying prominent locations, cairns are a major visual element in the modern landscape. Their considerable variation in form and longevity as a monument type provide important information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisation amongst prehistoric communities.

The round cairn 600m south of Raven Tor is well-preserved and will retain significant information on its original form and the burials placed within it. Its proximity to similar burial monuments adds to its significance.

Details

The monument includes a prehistoric round cairn with central cist, standing in open moorland.

The cairn comprises a mound of stones and turf and measures approximately 8m by 9.5m and stands about 0.5m high. It is well-preserved apart from some disturbance to the top of the cairn where stones have been removed to expose a central chamber. This is known as a cist and was a compartment to contain human burial remains. The cist consists of vertical stone slabs arranged to form a rectangular box although the western side has been removed. The capstone is still present but displaced to the south. The chamber measures approximately 1.15m long by an average of 0.70m wide and is now filled with rubble. The exterior of the cairn appears largely complete except for minor disturbances to its edges. Recent excavations of similar monuments show that archaeological deposits will survive within and beneath the undisturbed parts of the cairn.

The cairn is one of several funerary structures on the same moorlands. Approximately 350m to the north stands a triple cairn complex within a field of smaller cairns which are the subject of a separate scheduling. It is likely that all of these monuments were contained within an important area of burial and ceremonial activity during prehistoric times.

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:

31276

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Barnatt, J W, The Chatsworth Estate Historic Landscape Survey (Moorlands), (1998), 169-170
Barnatt, J W, The Chatsworth Estate Historic Landscape Survey (Moorlands), (1998), 169-170

End of official list entry

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