Ancient Monuments

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Round barrow on Elm Ledge, 720m north of Clither Beck Farm

A Scheduled Monument in Danby, North Yorkshire

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Coordinates

Latitude: 54.4868 / 54°29'12"N

Longitude: -0.8986 / 0°53'55"W

OS Eastings: 471447.646662

OS Northings: 510719.012756

OS Grid: NZ714107

Mapcode National: GBR QJ5K.7C

Mapcode Global: WHF8P.5HB6

Entry Name: Round barrow on Elm Ledge, 720m north of Clither Beck Farm

Scheduled Date: 5 January 1971

Last Amended: 2 December 1998

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1018750

English Heritage Legacy ID: 30187

County: North Yorkshire

Civil Parish: Danby

Traditional County: Yorkshire

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): North Yorkshire

Church of England Parish: Danby with Castleton and Commondale

Church of England Diocese: York

Details

The monument includes the buried and earthwork remains of a prehistoric burial
mound on the western part of the ridge of moorland known as Elm Ledge. The
round barrow is prominently sited at the top of a steep scarp, occupying the
skyline when viewed from both the north and the south. It survives as a low
mound 9m in diameter and standing up to 0.3m high immediately surrounded by a
mainly infilled surrounding ditch up to 3m wide.

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.

Excavations of round barrows in the region have shown that they demonstrate a
very wide range of burial rites from simple scatters of cremated material to
coffin inhumations and cremations contained in urns, typically dating to the
Bronze Age. A common factor is that barrows were normally used for more than
one burial and that the primary burial was frequently on or below the original
ground surface, often with secondary burials located within the body of the
mound. Most barrows include a small number of grave goods. These are often
small pottery food vessels, but stone, bone, jet and bronze items have also
occasionally been found. Encircling ditches, normally subsequently infilled,
are also quite common.
The round barrow 720m north of Clither Beck Farm is one of an important group
of burial mounds in the area.

Source: Historic England

Other nearby scheduled monuments

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