

faded 3 rings on outlying slab on the northern side.
Dumbell shaped thing on the outcrop to the NE side of the cairn.
Photo taken sunday 22nd may 2005 RAM05 day
Double Egg!
Close-up. 25-5-03
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The main rock art panel with cairn behind. 25-5-03
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Another decorated outcrop besides the reconstructed cairn. May 2002.
Another carved rock in the direct neighbourhood of the cairn. May 2002.
Rock panel before the (reconstructed) cairn. May 2002.
Fowberry Cairn; (Near Wooler, Northumberland). View over the main panel to the SW with The Cheviot visible in the background. May 2002. (Photo by Gus)
Fowberry Cairn (Near Wooler, Northumberland). April 2000; the main panel under the cairn nearly overgrown by mosses. Compare with the following photo of May 2002.
Fowberry Cairn; The main panel of rock art on outcrop rock a few meters East of the (reconstructed) cairn. May 2002. Compare this one with the 2000 pic of the same -but overgrown-panel.
If you want to see one of the most peculiar cairns the north of England has to offer, come here.
As stated below, the variety of rock art is top notch, with many motifs, of all different designs and execution. But don’t be distracted by the bvious carvings, there are a few heavily eroded complex ones to be found on the northern side of the cairn. These are at one end of the extant spectrum of visibility at thi site, with the other end being occupied by the most in-yer-face motif, which looks susiciously as if it’s been re-touched at some point in the distant past. Much the same as one nearby at West Horton
But the thing that makes this cairn odd is the large number of portable marked stones found during excavation. It’s generally a workable rule of thimb that portable cup marked stones in cairns are associated with some kind of funereal function, like those on the underside of cist covers. But the carn here yielded absolutely no sign of any burials at all, not even a bit of burnt bone, nor potsherd.
This doesn’t mean it wasn’t of course, but it certainly adds to the ambience of the place to think that it’s maning, and the meanings of the carvings, is so obscurely lost in the mists of time, that it defies even the most general of generalisations.
Access does require getting in touch with the farm though, they’re quite keen on that, as they usually have livestock in the field.
The Fowberry Cairn is one of those places that just leaves you reeling. The rock art and the kerbed-cairn are just too heavy for a light visit
Stan Beckensall says it all
“This is one of the most important sites in Britain, not only for the variety of its motifs but also for the existence of a double-kerbed mound on the outcrop that contains many decorated cobbles and four kerbstones which have cupmarks”.
Prehistoric Rock Art in Northumbria 2001
25-5-03. Visited as part of a group (RAM03), with permission from the farmer.
There are several panels of art here, some very worn, but some very deep.
Lovely feel to this site, set in a wood which today had lots of bluebells. Later in the year the panels may be hard to find through the ferns.
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Fowberry Cairn on BRAC Updated
Details, pictures and plans of the Fowberry Cairn excavation from the Beckensall Archive.