Documents

Where documents include maps, the use of this data is subject to terms and conditions (https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/termsandconditions).

The legal document available for download below constitutes the formal designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The additional details provided on this page are provided for information purposes only and do not form part of the designation. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within this additional information.

• Type

  Legal Documents

  Title

  Legal Documents for Long Calderwood,cairn (SM4701)

  Download(https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/document/600001342)

Summary

Description

The monument is a burial cairn dating probably to the Bronze Age (between around 2000 BC and 800 BC). It is visible as a truncated, grass-covered, roughly circular mound, with a depression in its centre. The cairn measures approximately 20m in diameter and survives up to a height of 1m in places. The monument is located at about 150m OD, close to the River Calder. The monument was first scheduled in 1989, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduled area is an irregular shape on plan to include the remains described above and an area around them within which evidence relating to the monument's construction, use and abandonment is expected to survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map. The scheduling specifically excludes the above-ground elements of all public realm infrastructure, including the top 300mm of modern surfaces and post-and-wire fencing to allow for their maintenance.

Statement of National Importance

The monument is of national importance as the remains of a substantial round cairn with the potential to make a significant addition to our understanding of the design, construction and use of burial monuments and the nature of belief systems and burial practices during the Bronze Age in Scotland. Ritual and funerary monuments are often our main source of evidence for human activity during the Bronze Age. They are particularly important for enhancing our understanding of Bronze Age society, its organisation, economy, religion and demography. Despite some disturbance both in the past and by recent development, this cairn is reasonably well-preserved and retains high potential for buried archaeological remains, including human burials, associated grave goods and palaeoenvironmental evidence, which could enhance our understanding of its construction, development sequence and period of use, and the nature of prehistoric funerary practices and associated activities. Today its landscape setting is partly obscured by amenity woodland and modern development, but originally the monument occupied a prominent location above the Clyde valley and it may have been intervisible with at least two other cairns nearby that have since been destroyed. The loss of the monument would significantly diminish our ability to appreciate and understand funerary practice, death and burial in prehistoric times, and the placing of such monuments within the landscape.

References

Bibliography

About Scheduled Monuments

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Scheduling is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for monuments and archaeological sites of national importance as set out in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.

We schedule sites and monuments that are found to be of national importance using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Scheduled monument records provide an indication of the national importance of the scheduled monument which has been identified by the description and map. The description and map (see ‘legal documents’ above) showing the scheduled area is the designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The statement of national importance and additional information provided are supplementary and provided for general information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within the statement of national importance or additional information. These records are not definitive historical or archaeological accounts or a complete description of the monument(s).

The format of scheduled monument records has changed over time. Earlier records will usually be brief. Some information will not have been recorded and the map will not be to current standards. Even if what is described and what is mapped has changed, the monument is still scheduled.

Scheduled monument consent is required to carry out certain work, including repairs, to scheduled monuments. Applications for scheduled monument consent are made to us. We are happy to discuss your proposals with you before you apply and we do not charge for advice or consent. More information about consent and how to apply for it can be found on our website at www.historicenvironment.scot.

Find out more about scheduling and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.