Ring Cairn

A ring cairn (sometimes correctly as " ring rail Enclosure ," misnamed ring Barrow ) is an externally slightly oval or round, annular, low (maximum 0.5 m high ), however, may be several meters wide wall structure, from 8 to 22 m in diameter, made ​​of rubble and earth, which originally was empty in the middle. In some cases, the center was later used ( in Manaton, at Hound Tor with a stone box ). The low structure of Cairns, is not always readily recognize excavations.

The originating from the Bronze Age systems are between Cornwall; Wales and Derbyshire ( Barbrook IV and V and Green Low) in England and Ireland spread.

The Cairns act like flat outputs of multiple higher Clava Cairns, which are referred to by laymen as well as ring Cairns. Although in some rings burials were found does not seem to have been their original meaning. In the central area graves and pits with cremated remains, hearths, and sometimes small low Cairns ( Green Low) be found.

Ring Cairns should have had a function that was somewhere between that of the much older Henges and the simultaneous stone circles. The fact that there is so little stone circles in South East Wales, could be related to the fact that there instead Ring Cairns were built.

The slightly oval ring Cairns near the Arthur 's Stone on the Gower Peninsula show was that the inner edge of the ring Cairns built very carefully and a small trench was upstream. Originally, there was a passage through the inside here about ten feet wide ring, which was blocked at the termination of use.