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Ring cairn 120m north-west of Raisgill Hall

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1011148
Date first listed:: 31-Mar-1965

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1011148
Date first listed:: 31-Mar-1965
Date of most recent amendment:: 17-Jan-1994

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Westmorland and Furness (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Orton
National Grid Reference:: NY 63469 05935

Reasons for Designation

A ring cairn is a prehistoric ritual monument comprising a circular bank of stones up to 20m in diameter surrounding a hollow central area. The bank may be kerbed on the inside, and sometimes on the outside as well, with small uprights or laid boulders. Ring cairns are found mainly in upland areas of England and are mostly discovered and authenticated by fieldwork and ground level survey, although a few are large enough to be visible on aerial photographs. They often occur in pairs or small groups of up to four examples. Occasionally they lie within round barrow cemeteries. Ring cairns are interpreted as ritual monuments of Early and Middle Bronze Age date. The exact nature of the rituals concerned is not fully understood, but excavation has revealed pits, some containing burials and others containing charcoal and pottery, taken to indicate feasting activities associated with the burial rituals. Many areas of upland have not yet been surveyed in detail and the number of ring cairns in England is not accurately known. However, available evidence indicates a population of between 250 and 500 examples. As a relatively rare class of monument exhibiting considerable variation in form, all positively identified examples retaining significant archaeological deposits are considered worthy of preservation.

The ring cairn 120m north-west of Raisgill Hall is one of the larger examples of this monument class and, despite some mutilation of its interior by 19th- century quarrying, it survives reasonably well. This quarrying revealed human remains and further evidence of interments and the rituals undertaken at this type of monument will exist within the cairn's interior.

Details

The monument is a ring cairn located 120m north-west of Raisgill Hall on the shelf of a hillslope overlooking the Lune valley. It includes a ring bank of turf-covered limestone rubble, between 4m and 6m wide and up to 1.2m high, with external measurements of 31m by 28m. It encloses a slightly oval internal area measuring approximately 21m by 18m. There is an entrance 5.5m wide on the bank's north side. Nineteenth-century quarrying within the ring cairn revealed a cist containing a skeleton together with bones associated with several secondary interments in close proximity.

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:: 23618
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
AM County Index, (1983)
Nicholson, , Burn, , 'History of Westmorland' in History of Westmorland, , Vol. 1, (), 491
Other
Darvill, T., MPP Single Monument Class Descriptions - Ring Cairns, (1989)
SMR No 1977, Cumbria SMR, Ring Mound 500ft NW of Raisgill Hall, (1985)
To Robinson,K.D. MPPFW, Mr Dunning (site owner), (1993)

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.