Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow known as Beacon Hill. It is situated near
Barkisland, north east of Ringstone Edge Moor, 500m south of Upper Gosling
Royd. Part of the barrow was removed during the building of a field wall on
the east side in 1907. On the north side it is encroached upon by a small
quarry, but most of the barrow survives.
The barrow is approximately 28m by 20m in diameter and 1.5m high. There is no
evidence of an encircling ditch. The summit of the barrow has a broad central
hollow, at one edge of which is a modern stone cairn.
When the foundation trench was dug for the field wall, two urns, burnt bone,
charcoal and clay were found, confirming the site as a Bronze Age burial
monument. The name Beacon Hill suggests that the barrow was later used as a
beacon site.

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

Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrow, are funerary monuments
dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age, with most
examples belonging to the period 2400-1500 BC. They were constructed as
earthen or rubble mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered single or multiple
burials. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often
acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Often superficially similar,
although differing widely in size, they exhibit regional variations in form
and a diversity of burial practices. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl
barrows recorded nationally (many more have already been destroyed), occurring
across most of lowland Britain. Often occupying prominent locations, they are
a major historic element in the modern landscape and their considerable
variation of form and longevity as a monument type provide important
information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisations 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 edges and centre of Beacon Hill bowl barrow have been disturbed
in the past, it still survives reasonably well. It retains important
archaeological information, and will preserve burials in the form of
cremations. Beacon Hill forms an important part of the prehistoric landscape
of the Ringstone Edge area, which includes a small cairnfield and a ring cairn

Source: Historic England