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ShropshireTraveller S
ShropshireTraveller Aug 24, 2005 12:55:08
Replying to baza

I've found that cairns and barrows are used interchangeably by some. For the Shropshire guides, it clearly says that barrows are earthen, cairns are of stone, but CADW guides, and Coflein sometimes refer to the same monuments as cairns and barrows in different sources.

Cheers

Tim

B baza
baza Aug 25, 2005 00:18:33
Replying to ShropshireTraveller

Once upon a time, in England, all prehistoric burial mounds, whether of earth or stone, were called barrows, and can still be regarded as such.
Slowly, the word 'cairn', from the Scottish Gaelic, has taken over for describing barrows formed from stone.
So, nowadays, we tend to refer to barrows formed from stone as cairns.


Baz