Details

The monument includes a round cairn located on the fellside 610m south east of
High Grains. It includes a slightly oval shaped mound of turf covered stones
measuring 6.5m east-west by 6m north-south and up to 0.6m high on the
downslope western side. A central hollow in the cairn's surface indicates
unrecorded archaeological investigation, and this disturbance has revealed
part of a stone cist which would have held a cremation or inhumation.

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.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

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 may be placed within the mound in stone-lined
compartments called cists. In some cases the cairn was surrounded by a ditch.
Often occupying prominent locations, cairns are a major visual element in the
modern landscape. They are a relatively common feature of the uplands and are
the stone equivalent of the earthen round barrows of the lowlands. Their
considerable variation in form and longevity as a monument type provide
important information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisation
amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of
their period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered
worthy of protection.

Despite limited unrecorded archaeological investigation at the centre of the
mound, the round cairn 610m south east of High Grains survives reasonably well
and will contain undisturbed archaeological deposits within the mound and upon
the old landsurface beneath. The cairn lies close to other prehistoric
monuments on the fells around Bewcastle and thus indicates the importance of
this area in prehistoric times and the diversity of monument classes to be
found here.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Darvill,T., MPP Single Monument Class Description - Bowl Barrows, (1988)
SMR No. 106, Cumbria SMR, Watch Crag, (1985)

Source: Historic England