Ring cairn

These sites date to the Bronze Age and occur in Cornwall, Derbyshire (Barbrook IV and V and Green Low) in England; and in Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

The patterned relationship of these smaller monuments to cairnfield systems throughout the Eastern Moors suggests that they were built and used by specific communities, probably in the centuries around 2000 BC.

Although details vary from one site to another, nearly all comprise a ring of small upright stones set on the inner edge of a roughly circular bank.

Ring cairns may have had a function that lay somewhere between that of the much older henges and the contemporary stone circles.

In the central area, graves and pits with cremation ashes, fireplaces and sometimes, small, low cairns are found.