Register of ancient monuments
Reference number 1018812
Cairn With An Oval Bank On Midgley Moor
Height Road
Mytholmroyd
Hebden Bridge
Calderdale
DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT
The monument includes a cairn with an oval rubble-banked enclosure attached, on Midgley Moor, 430m north east of Upper Han Royd. The cairn is 5m in diameter and 1m high. On its east side is a rubble bank 2m wide and 0.3m high, forming an oval 7m by 5m. The cairn may be a ring cairn, a ritual monument of the Early or Middle Bronze Age.
ASSESSMENT OF IMPORTANCE
Round cairns are prehistoric funerary monuments dating to the Bronze Age (c2000-700 BC). They were constructed as stone mounds covering single or multiple burials. These burials may be placed within the mound in stone-lined compartments called cists. In some cases the cairn was surrounded by a ditch. Often occupying prominent locations, cairns are a major visual element in the modern landscape. They are a relatively common feature of the uplands and are the stone equivalent of the earthern 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 early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.
The cairn 430m north east of Upper Han Royd survives well and will retain important archaeological information.
