Details

The monument includes the remains of a long cairn of Bronze Age date. It is
located on the southern slopes of Dod Hill above the Lilburn Burn and has
extensive views to the south and east. The adjacent prehistoric and medieval
sites are the subject of separate schedulings. The cairn is triangular in plan
and aligned NNW by SSE. It measures 24m long, with its widest point at the
uphill, northern end measuring 14m wide and standing up to 1.5m high. The
cairn is formed of earth and stone.

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

Long cairns were constructed as elongated rubble mounds and acted as funerary
monuments during the Early and Middle Neolithic periods (c.3400-2400 BC). They
represent the burial places of Britain's early farming communities and, as
such, are amongst the oldest field monuments surviving visibly in the present
landscape. Where investigated, long cairns appear to have been used for
communal burial, often with only parts of the human remains having been
selected for interment. Long cairns sometimes display evidence of internal
structural arrangements, including stone-lined compartments and tomb chambers
constructed from massive slabs. Some examples also show edge-set kerb stones
bounding parts of the cairn perimeter. Certain sites provide evidence for
several phases of funeral activity preceding construction of the cairn, and
consequently it is probable that long cairns acted as important ritual sites
for local communities over a considerable period of time. Some 500 examples of
long cairns and long barrows, their counterparts in central and eastern
England, are recorded nationally. As one of the few types of Neolithic
structure to survive as a visible monument and due to their comparative
rarity, their considerable age and their longevity as a monument type, all
positively identified long cairns are considered to be nationally important.

The long cairn on the south western slope of Dod Hill, 1km north east of The
Dod is well preserved and retains significant archaeological deposits. It is a
rare monument class in Northumberland and extends the distribution of long
cairns into the north Cheviots. It will contribute to the study of Bronze Age
burial and land use in this area.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Gates, T, 'Archaeologia Aeliana' in A Long Cairn On Dod Hill, Ilderton, Northumberland, , Vol. 5 ser 10, (1982), 210-11

Source: Historic England