Details

The monument includes a partly mutilated long barrow located on Trainford Brow
a short distance north of Lowther village. It is aligned east-west and
includes a mound of earth and stones with maximum dimensions of 104m long by
24m wide. At its eastern end it measures up to 3.5m high but the barrow tapers
down towards the western end where it measures approximately 1.5m high.
A post and wire fence on the monument's northern side is excluded from the
scheduling but the ground beneath it is included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Long barrows were constructed as earthen or drystone mounds with flanking
ditches and acted as funerary monuments during the Early and Middle Neolithic
periods (3400-2400 BC). They represent the burial places of Britain's early
farming communities and, as such, are amongst the oldest field monuments
surviving visibly in the present landscape. Where investigated, long barrows
appear to have been used for communal burial, often with only parts of the
human remains having been selected for interment. Certain sites provide
evidence for several phases of funerary monument preceding the barrow and,
consequently, it is probable that long barrows acted as important ritual sites
for local communities over a considerable period of time. Some 500 examples of
long barrows and long cairns, their counterparts in the uplands, are recorded
nationally. As one of the few types of Neolithic structure to survive as
earthworks, and due to their comparative rarity, their considerable age and
their longevity as a monument type, all long barrows are considered to be
nationally important.

Despite some quarrying at the monument's centre and southern side, the long
barrow on Trainford Brow survives reasonably well. It is one of a number of
Neolithic and later prehistoric monuments situated in close proximity to
Penrith and the Eden valley, and attests to the importance of this area in
prehistoric times and the diversity of monument classes to be found here.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
FMW Report, Crow, J, Long barrow on Trainford Brow 1/2mile north of Lowther village, (1987)
To KD Robinson at site visit, Dr. M Nieke, (1994)

Source: Historic England