Was out camping at the weekend and manged to grab a trig that I have walked past a few times without noticing . I always thought that the Cairn marked the trig but its actually a hundred metres away . Any way following our camp
@Bopdude and myself walked back via the trig .
Simon Howe comprises
Barrow and Stone Circle
In the middle of the Stone Circle is a large circular cairn which is visible from miles away. This is a modern addition to the site and has nothing to do with any of the historic monuments.
Originally, the Barrow had a central Round Cairn surrounded by a circle of kerbstones. The Cairn has been damaged, pilfered and eroded over time leaving just the kerbstones. Some of the stones from the original Cairn were used to build a rough stone shelter. Others were used to build a hiker’s cairn. This acted as a beacon for walkers on the
Lyke Wake Walk.
The stone circle is about 18m in diameter and has a kerb of stones. These flat slabs of sandstone lean outwards and are about 0.6m high. Some of the stones are missing and a couple have fallen over next to their original position. However, fifteen are still in position. So, despite the modern-day activity and erosion, the site is still in reasonable condition.
English Heritage has funded work to protect the monument. This involved removing the shelter and rebuilding a central cairn. Also, one of the fallen stones of the nearby stone alignment was re-erected.
Round cairns are piles of stones primarily made as funerary monuments and usually date from the Bronze Age (2000-700 BC). They are nearly always found in prominent locations. They indicate that an important person is buried underneath, usually a warrior or chieftain. Often the deceased were buried with their earthly possessions in a stone-lined compartment.
Barrows
There are two Round Barrows close by Simon Howe. The nearest is 80m away to the northnortheast the furthest 140m to the northeast. Both of the barrows have low earthen mounds. The first sits close to the furthest standing stone and has a diameter of 13m and is about 0.5m high. The other mound is slightly larger and higher.
In Anglo-Saxon the word for a grave-mound was
beorg and this is the origin of the modern-day word Barrow.
Howe is an old Norse word for the same feature. There are more than 2,000 Howes on the North Yorkshire Moors. Many of the Howes have been excavated and pillaged by opportunists looking for valuable items.
Most of the Barrows on the North Yorkshire Moors are Round Barrows that date from the
Late Neolithic Period to the
Late Bronze Age. These were often used for multiple burials and often grouped together. Round Cairns date from a later period. So the two Barrows here pre-date the Barrow with the Stone Circle.
Standing Stones date from this same period and are often located close to Round Barrows. Excavations near standing stones have found flints, pottery, human bone and charcoal.
Standing Stones
The four Standing Stones that make up the alignment here are large enough to make out on the Google Maps satellite image. The four sandstone boulders are regularly spaced and run in a South-West to North-East direction. Two of the stones are still upright, one has fallen over and the other has almost fallen over. After a moorland fire in 1947, a socket was discovered between the surviving stones and the Stone Circle. This stone is missing from the site. So at one time, there would have been at least 5 stones.
TP5982 - Simon Howe
The walk up looking back towards our campsite