Round cairns are mounds covering single or multiple burials, sometimes contained within an underground stone compartment called a cist.
They are usually circular or oval and below 10 metres in diameter (but sometimes larger). Like their typically larger relatives, ring cairns, they are dated to the Bronze Age (c. 2500 BC to c. 800 BC). Round cairns are characterised by a raised or slightly domed middle (contrasting with the central depression more commonly seen in ring cairns). They are sometimes surrounded by a stone kerb or ditch.
Among the known round cairns in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale, none are Historic England scheduled-monuments. However, it should be noted that interpretation of these sites can be difficult. The distinction between a ring cairn and a round cairn is not always clear, as readers may discern from the records in the SWAAG database, links below. See the Ring cairns page on this web site.
The SWAAG database Category Burial Mounds and Cairns contains 34 records in total. Among them, 21 describe round-cairn sites, of which 10 are in Swaledale and two in Arkengarthdale. The round cairn at Great Punchard Gill, seen in the photograph above, is the second entry, record no. 166. There are more photographs of the same site and photographs of the great Stony Raise cairn on Greenber Edge, Wensleydale, one of the largest of all the prehistoric cairns in the north of England, in the Photographic category PDF, scroll to records nos. 590 and 797.
Another round cairn is recorded on Braithwaite Moor, Wensleydale, in Geographic category PDF, scroll to record 690.
