Details

The monument includes a stone cairn situated just below the crest of a south
facing slope in the Forest of Dean. The cairn has a stone mound which measures
6m in diameter and is about 0.5m high. Two large stone slabs, about 1m long
lie parallel to each other about 0.4m apart on the centre of the mound. Around
these are scattered a number of large limestone slabs, forming a roughly
circular cairn. It is possible that the cairn was disturbed during the course
of unrecorded excavation in the past.

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.

Although the round cairn 720m west of Chase Farm may have been disturbed, it
will still contain evidence for primary and possibly secondary burials, along
with grave goods, which will provide information about prehistoric funerary
practices. The cairn will also preserve environmental information in the
buried original ground surface, predating the construction of the cairn, and
giving an insight into the landscape within which the monument was set.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, , Vol. LXXIX, (1960), 135

Source: Historic England