Crawley Edge Cairns Explained

Crawley Edge Cairns
Alternate Name:	Crawley Edge Cairnfield
Map Type:	County Durham
Region:	North East
Coordinates:	54.7531°N -1.9969°W
Type:	Bronze Age Cairnfield

The Crawley Edge Cairns are a series of forty-two Bronze Age round barrows, cairns and clearance cairns located in a field in Crawleyside, near Stanhope, County Durham, England.^[1]

The Cairnfield

The cairnfield site lies on a gentle south-facing slope of a hill-spur in Weardale and remains in open moorland. Two of the cairns were excavated in 1977 and surveys undertaken in 1984 and 1991.^[2]

The inclusion of clearance cairns at the site is usually taken as an indication of clearance in advance of arable farming, but the Crawley Edge field unusually includes a barrow cremation mound among the cairns.^[3]

See also

• History of County Durham
• Bronze Age Britain
• Heathery Burn Cave

External links

• Young, R. 1984. PhD Thesis – Aspects of the Prehistoric Archaeology of the Wear Valley, County Durham

Notes and References

1. Web site: PastScape Record: MONUMENT NO. 20163 . English Heritage . 2007 . 2015-02-22.
2. Young, R. and Welfare, A. T., 1978. Excavations at Crawley Edge, Stanhope in Weardale, 1976-7 (Archaeological Reports for 1977). Durham: University of Durham, pp.8-10
3. Web site: Archaeological Survey in connection with a proposed new trackway on Bollihope Common, Frosterley, Weardale, Co. Durham (Brigantia Archaeological Practice) . Turnbull, P. . 2006 . Archaeology Data Service . 2015-02-22.