Details

The monument includes a prehistoric cairn, dated to the Bronze Age and located
on a ridge on a gentle slope facing to the north east. Although slightly
disturbed at its centre, the cairn displays complex and unusual structural
features and is likely to contain intact buried remains. It stands isolated
from other cairns and prehistoric features on Bamford Moor, suggesting that it
was a focal structure of some importance.
The cairn measures 8m by 6m and stands approximately 0.9m high. It has a
depression at its centre which may have resulted from an undocumented, but
minor, excavation. However, most of the cairn remains undisturbed, indicating
that material is likely to remain intact, including human burial remains.
The cairn is highly unusual for the Peak District in that it contains a ring
of five orthostats (upright boulders), standing to a maximum height of about
0.7m, forming a spaced kerb at its perimeter. The orthostats are probably
complete as they are equally spaced. Similar structures are recorded in
Cumbria and elsewhere, although this form of construction is rare.

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

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 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 which were often placed within the mound in stone-lined
compartments called cists. Often occupying prominent locations, cairns are a
major visual element in the modern landscape. They are a relatively common
feature in 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 prehistoric communities.
The cairn 850m north west of Crow Chin is particularly important because of
its structural complexity, being highly unusual in the national and local
context. As a near-complete example, its potential for the survival of buried
remains, including human funerary evidence, is high.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Barnatt, J W, Peak District Barrow Survey, 1989, unpublished survey

Source: Historic England