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<< Our Photo Pages >> Kirkhaugh Barrow - Round Barrow(s) in England in Northumberland

Submitted by David on Friday, 04 February 2022  Page Views: 893

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Kirkhaugh Barrow
Country: England
NOTE: This site is 0.2 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Northumberland Type: Round Barrow(s)
Nearest Town: Alston  Nearest Village: Ayle
Map Ref: NY7054749298
Latitude: 54.837630N  Longitude: 2.460093W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 2 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 3 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 5

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Kirkhaugh Barrow
Kirkhaugh Barrow submitted by dodomad : The Kirkhaugh cairns were originally excavated by Herbert Maryon in 1935, and the finds are on display in the Great North Museum in Newcastle. The site is best known for the extremely rare type of gold ornament from Cairn 1, often called an ‘earring’ this is now thought more likely to have been a hair braid. But it is also important because of another find - a carefully shaped stone known as... (Vote or comment on this photo)
Kirkhaugh Barrow began as a round barrow but is now, after cultivation, more oval shaped. It has been excavated twice, in 1935 and 2014, by Maryon and then Fitzpatrick, and was found to have covered the inhumation of an adult male. The acidic moorland soil had consumed the body, which had been unusually laid on the ground rather than in a stone-lined cist, but the remaining grave goods were unusual and suggested that the individual enjoyed high status. There were the remains of an All-Over-Corded beaker, which gave a good indication that the burial was from the earliest Bronze Age, and a pair of gold hair clips - one discovered in 1935 and its pair in 2014 - showing that their owner was very well off.

A cushion block was also found and these small rectangular blocks of stone are reckoned as early metalworkers' tools. It's believed that the burial was of an early prospector for copper. The Amesbury Archer also was buried with a pair of gold hair tresses and a cushion block and the two burials are the only ones known with both metalworker tools and gold ornaments. The cushion block was perhaps used, together with a small amount of burning charcoal and a quill blowpipe, in assaying ore deposits.

The excavation reports are freely available and a couple of other mounds in the same field were also dug in '35, with inconclusive results. What both sets of excavating groups missed was a pair of small barrows sheltering behind the fieldwall beside the road to the site. These are well preserved and obviously have never been dug and have been named Ayle Highside 1 and 2. The Kirkhaugh Barrow overlooks the stone circle site in the valley at Kirkhaugh and should be considered, perhaps, as being peripheral to it. The actual barrow has an equidistant lineal relationship with a very round natural hill - called a drumlin - a little way to the northwest and a ditched circular enclosure a similar distance to the southeast. The Kirkhaugh Barrow links both places, which are not intervisible. The circular ditched enclosure has been defined as an Iron Age roundhouse settlement and the outlines of half a dozen roundhouses show distinctly in the LiDAR image.

Although the barrow is within the Knaresdale and Kirkhaugh (merged) parish the field is very near to the hamlet of Ayle (formerly Ale) and this would have been a more appropriate name for the burial mound. The earliest metalworkers were often interred with boar tusks but these will have been lost to the acidic soil in Northumberland. Perhaps these tusks were an emblem for the new craft of metallurgy and that they hinted of the prospectors truffling about for surface deposits of copper ore, which on Alston Moor are malachite and chalcopyrite. There are no records of gold being found on Alston Moor but the word does persist in both the local placenames of Geltsdale and Gilderdale, perhaps suggesting alluvial traces. As well as introducing metalworking the Beaker People also brought the custom of drinking beer and this is perhaps carried on by the name of the burn and the colour of its pearty water. The nearby Ayle Burn Mine started as a network of flooded limestone caves but were later mined for zinc, until the 1920s, and maps of the workings may be found under 'Ayleburn Mine Cavern'.
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Kirkhaugh Barrow
Kirkhaugh Barrow submitted by David : Another view of that same high side barrow. Two sets of excavators, visitors and sightseers went past these barrows and never noticed they were there! Calamitous cold weather in May broke many grouse nests and there was a dearth of the birds in 2021. Coincidentally the weather favoured the heather which flowered as never before. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Kirkhaugh Barrow
Kirkhaugh Barrow submitted by David : Here's one of the high side barrows or cairns. The long view over Alston (old stone) will be shared by the Kirkhaugh Barrow, indicating what a prestigious burial it was. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Kirkhaugh Barrow
Kirkhaugh Barrow submitted by David : The LiDAR image with Kirkhaugh Barrow near the centre of the image. The top of the picture is north and the barrow appears to be connected to two circular features to the left and the right. To the west is a particularly rounded hill. Perhaps it has been slightly altered. To the east is a ditched and banked circular enclosure. recorded as an Iron Age roundhouse settlement. The two satellite c... (Vote or comment on this photo)

Kirkhaugh Barrow
Kirkhaugh Barrow submitted by David : The Hawthorn bush on the right points toward the barrow - it's downhill from there. Even the sheep are unhappy. (Vote or comment on this photo)

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Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
NY7049 : Pasture near Ayle by Andrew Smith
by Andrew Smith
©2006(licence)
NY7049 : Ruined cottage by Mike Quinn
by Mike Quinn
©2007(licence)
NY7049 : Kirkside Wood and Highrow Crags by Mike Quinn
by Mike Quinn
©2010(licence)
NY7049 : South Tyne by Helen Wilkinson
by Helen Wilkinson
©2007(licence)
NY7049 : High Row by Andrew Smith
by Andrew Smith
©2006(licence)

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 528m WNW 285° Kirkhaugh Wells* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (NY7003749441)
 619m W 281° Kirkhaugh Cross* Ancient Cross (NY6993849420)
 690m SSW 210° Kirkhaugh Stone Circle* Stone Circle (NY702487)
 1.2km WSW 240° Whitley Castle (Alston)* Hillfort (NY6948948692)
 1.2km ENE 70° Bouker Stones* Standing Stones (NY717497)
 1.6km NW 314° Railway Barrow* Artificial Mound (NY694504)
 2.5km NNW 330° Saffron Well (Barhaugh)* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (NY69285148)
 2.9km NW 310° Lintley Observatory* Misc. Earthwork (NY683512)
 3.0km NW 311° Slaggyford Stone Rows* Stone Row / Alignment (NY683513)
 3.0km NW 311° Low Thornhope Farm Rock Art (NY6825951318)
 3.2km SSE 164° Raise Henge?* Misc. Earthwork (NY714462)
 3.6km SSE 166° Bridge End Henge Misc. Earthwork (NY714458)
 4.0km WNW 300° Robbed Cairn* Cairn (NY671513)
 4.1km NW 311° Amos Hill* Artificial Mound (NY675520)
 4.1km NNE 33° Wolf Hills Spearhead Find Site Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry (NY728527)
 4.2km WNW 285° David's Cobs* Cairn (NY665504)
 4.2km WNW 290° Longpot Head Stone Circle* Stone Circle (NY666508)
 4.2km WNW 298° Coal Tips Barrow Artificial Mound (NY668513)
 4.2km WSW 248° Grey Nag Cairn* Cairn (NY666477)
 4.7km WNW 283° Tot's Cupmarked Stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NY660504)
 4.7km WNW 295° Slaggyford Stones* Standing Stones (NY663513)
 4.7km W 268° Tot's Four-Poster* Stone Circle (NY658492)
 4.8km WNW 300° Knar Standing Stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NY664517)
 4.8km WNW 294° Knarsdale N01 Rock Art (NY6615451284)
 4.8km WNW 296° Knaresdale 1 Rock Art (NY6619751454)
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"Kirkhaugh Barrow" | Login/Create an Account | 3 News and Comments
  
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Coroner rules object found at Kirkhaugh Cairn in 2014 is treasure by Andy B on Friday, 04 February 2022
(User Info | Send a Message)
An almost pure gold ornament found in Northumberland and dating back to the early bronze age has been declared as treasure by a coroner. An inquest at County Hall in Morpeth heard that the 33mm long ornament, thought to be a hair tress or a decorative piece worn on clothing, dates back to 2400BC and is a “very early example of metalwork.”

The artefact, made of almost pure gold, was found at Kirkhaugh Cairns near Alston in 2014 by four youngsters.

According to a report by Eleanor Cox of the British Museum, is the partner of a matching object found at the site in 1935, during an excavation led by Herbet Maryon.

In a twist of fate, two of the young boys who found the treasure - brothers Sebastian and Luca Alderson - are the great-great grandsons of Joseph William Alderson, who was part of the 1935 team. The other boys were Joseph and Aidan Bell, and all four were taking part in the Altogether Archaeology project for the North Pennines AONB.

The tress was found alongside three flint arrowheads and a jet button.

More at:
https://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/news/18961808.coroner-rules-object-found-kirkhaugh-cairn-treasure/
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Kirkhaugh Barrow by Andy B on Friday, 04 February 2022
(User Info | Send a Message)
The Kirkhaugh cairns were originally excavated by Herbert Maryon in 1935, and the finds are on display in the Great North Museum in Newcastle. The site is best known for the extremely rare type of gold ornament from Cairn 1, often called an ‘earring’ this is now thought more likely to have been a hair braid. But it is also important because of another find – a carefully shaped stone known as a ‘cushion stone’, now known to be a kind of anvil used by the very earliest metalworkers for the crafting of gold and copper objects; the grave is thus thought to be that of a very early metal worker (from about 2,400BC) who perhaps died while prospecting for copper in the North Pennines. There is only one other grave in the whole of Britain that includes both a cushion stone and gold ornaments of this type, that of the ‘Amesbury Archer’ near Stonehenge. The Amesbury Archer is very well known for a number of reasons, not least the fact that analysis of his teeth has proved that his childhood was spent in the Alps; why he came to Stonehenge and was buried there remains a mystery about which there has been much fascinating speculation. Maryon did not recover any human remains during his excavation at Kirkhaugh, but it is thought that a modern excavation may recover further finds and samples that may yet tell us much more about the person buried here.

Refs:
Hale, D. (2014). Kirkhaugh Cairn, Tynedale, Northumberland - geophysical survey. Archaeological Services, Durham University.
https://doi.org/10.5284/1037927

Source: ALTOGETHER ARCHAEOLOGY
Theme 2. Round Cairns & Round Houses
KIRKHAUGH CAIRNS EXCAVATION
PROJECT DESIGN
https://altogetherarchaeology.org/Reports%20and%20Proposal%20Docs/Kirkhaugh/Altogether%20Archaeology%20Kirkhaugh%20Cairns%20PD.pdf
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