Terminal Cairns

Hart Tor, North terminal cairn

An article looking at the stone row terminal cairns has recently been uploaded and is available here. In Great Britain as whole 82 stone rows have terminal cairns at their upper end, 23 at their lower end and three have cairns at both ends. Most rows do not have terminal cairns, but around half of those that do are on Dartmoor. The presence or absence of a terminal cairn may be important and imply that the two types of row had a different function or at least meant something different to those who built them.

Map showing the distribution of stone rows with terminal cairns. Red dots represent a row with a terminal cairn at the upper end, green at the lower end and black rows with terminal cairns at both ends.

Kerbed cairn at lower end of Simon Howe stone row on the Yorkshire Moors.