A ring cairn (also correctly termed a ring bank enclosure, but sometimes wrongly described as a ring barrow) is a circular or slightly oval, ring-shaped, low (maximum 0.5 metres high) embankment, several metres wide and from 8 to 20 metres in diameter. It is made of stone and earth and was originally empty in the centre. In several cases the middle of the ring was later used (at Hound Tor, for example, there is a stone cist in the centre). The low profile of these cairns is not always possible to make out without conducting excavations.

Distribution

These sites date to the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

and occur in

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( Barbrook IV and V and Green Low) in England; and in Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

Description

Ring Cairn near Mains of Moyness - geograph

The

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

s look like flat variants of the significantly higher

Clava cairn The Clava cairn is a type of Bronze Age circular chamber tomb cairn, named after the group of three cairns at Balnuaran of Clava, to the east of Inverness in Scotland. There are about 50 cairns of this type in an area round about Inverness. They ...

s, which are often called ring cairns by laymen. The situation is rather different on the gritstones of the Eastern Uplands. Here it is more common to find smaller stone circles and ring cairns. The patterned relationship of these smaller monuments to cairnfield systems throughout the Eastern Moors suggests that they were built and used by specific communities, probably in the centuries around 2000 BC. Although details vary from one site to another, nearly all comprise a ring of small upright stones set on the inner edge of a roughly circular bank.

Function

Ring cairns may have had a function that lay somewhere between that of the much older

henge A henge can be one of three related types of Neolithic Earthworks (archaeology), earthwork. The essential characteristic of all three is that they feature a ring-shaped bank and ditch, with the ditch inside the bank. Because the internal ditches ...

s and the contemporary

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of megalithic standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially Stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being ...

s. In northeast Scotland the recumbent stone circles seem to have encircled a cairn and typically it was a ring cairn, as distinct from a Clava cairn. In some instances, in particular at Tomnaverie stone circle, the cairn was built before the circle according to an overall design. Usually all superficial trace of the cairns has disappeared over the millennia.{{cite book , last1=Bradley , first1=Richard , author1-link=Richard Bradley (archaeologist), last2=Phillips , first2=Tim , last3=Arrowsmith , first3=Sharon , last4=Ball , first4=Chris , title=The Moon and the Bonfire: an investigation of three stone circles in north-east Scotland , date=2005 , publisher=

Society of Antiquaries of Scotland The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is the senior antiquarian body of Scotland, with its headquarters in the National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh. The Society's aim is to promote the cultural heritage of Scotland. The usu ...

, isbn=0903903334 , url=https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/issue.xhtml?recordId=1147153&recordType=MonographSeriesChapter, ref={{sfnref, Bradley, 2005 �
available online
/ref> The fact that in southeast Wales there are so few stone circles could be related to the fact that ring cairns were built there instead. Although graves have been found in some ring cairns, this does not appear to be their original purpose. In the central area, graves and pits with cremation ashes, fireplaces and sometimes, small, low cairns are found. The slightly oval ring cairns near Arthur's Stone on the

Gower Peninsula The Gower Peninsula (), or simply Gower (), is a peninsula in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan, and is now within the City and County of Swansea. It projects towards th ...

show that the inner edges of ring cairns were especially carefully constructed and were set in front of a small grave. Originally there was a passage through the ring here, about ten metres across, that was blocked when the cairn ceased to be used.

References

Literature

* F. Lynch: ''Ring cairns and related monuments in Wales.'' In: ''Scottish Archaeological Forum.'' 4, 1972 S. 61–80 * F. Lynch: ''Ring cairns in Britain and Ireland: their design and purpose.'' In: ''Ulster Journal of Archaeology.'' 42, 1979 S. 1–19

External links

„Carnau Cefn-y-Ffordd“, Ring cairns - brief text and photos

Aerial photo of Hound Tor round cairn
Bronze Age