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rockhopper wrote: Many of the large stone cairns in south east Ireland have dished interiors. They also have small ante-chambers, and incorporate pits, for want of a better description. These have been described as "wind shelters" in the past, despite the fact that their shelter potential is in most cases zero. Hello Rockhopper, I've enjoyed this thread and some of the ideas you've mentioned are certainly worthy of a lot of consideration (especially the possibilities of "scree alteration" that you came into TMA with). I'm not an expert and I've never been to Ireland, so not qualified or experienced to know whether things there are similar to the sorts of stuff you see on the uplands in E&W. That said, I must admit that the quote above, about the causes of "dished interiors", does cause me some doubts. Although perfectly possible the theory does seem to discount other equally (or possibly more) plausible reasons for why a lot of cairns have dished centres. There are plenty of written accounts of barrows being dug into in the 17th/18th/19th centuries, either to look for treasure or (in later periods) to investigate using the only means available at the time, i.e. by digging into them. I would think that the majority of dished cairns I've seen have that shape due to recent-ish disturbance. In addition, the same is true of earthen round barrows (often lowland), not just (upland) cairns. The scooped "doughnut" shape we've all seen is (I think) usually the result of digging. Ironically, the recent TMA thread about a certain Cheshire barrow that provided us with such an enlightened contribution the other day is such an example. Going forwards in time, I note your brisk dismissal of the "wind shelter" cause for barrows to have hollowed-out interiors. Sadly this is something that still goes on today and that is precisely how many of these upland cairns have been treated in the last 100 years. Two specific examples for you: Western Beacon on Dartmoor. A group of volunteers (including TMA-er Lubin) spent a lot of time dismantling wind shelters to restore the cairns there to their previous shape. Sadly some of them have already been "re-shelterised" since. This provides an example of it happening that has been documented very recently. Bowscale Fell in the Northern Lake District. This mountain has a very substantial stone-built "wind shelter" on top of it. It looks very like a BA cairn that's been hollowed, but it isn't. The 25" OS maps from the late 19th century show a trig pillar there but no cairn (which they would have shown if it was there). It's a wind shelter built during the 20th century purely to provide a mountain top shelter (and I must admit it is effective to block the prevailing wind, having sat in it for a cupppa on a very windy, rainy and cold October day last year). Neither of these causes of "dished interiors" disproves your theory. But both are demonstrable and documented as alternative causes in E&W and I think if SE Ireland is comparable, your theory will probably need to accommodate that. Cheers, thesweetcheat Reply | with quote |  9th February 2012ce 20:14 In reply to: Re: UPLAND LANDSCAPE ALTERATION IN SOUTH EAST IRELAND. (rockhopper)2 replies: Re: UPLAND LANDSCAPE ALTERATION IN SOUTH EAST IRELAND. (rockhopper) Re: UPLAND LANDSCAPE ALTERATION IN SOUTH EAST IRELAND. (rockhopper) |
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