Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

There is quite a difference between the mounds of long barrows , passage tombs etc and the cairns that surrounded portal tombs .
The former dwarf the latter have kerb stones and are not composed of stones to anything like the same extent . It is this differece that could explain why some cairns were removed i.e. a useful source of stone .Furthermore none have been shown to cover the capstone suggesting the possibility that not only stabilising the orthostats the purpose may have also been to help the raise the capstone .

There is also the point of the aesthetic form and sheer substantial nature of many surviving capstones. I'm no structural engineer, but I've often been struck by just how impressive they are in relation to a role of merely roofing over a chamber, suggesting that surely there must have been some requirement towards display. Why go to all that trouble then pile rock or earth over the top? I understand this is looking at it from a 21st century viewpoint, and the fact that the gods would know it was impressive regardless might have been enough, but I would have thought human vanity - ours is better than theirs - would have played a part.

Agree with the source of stone point.... clearly Iron Age culture generally respected/feared cairns as representing a bygone source of 'power' or else so many round cairns and long/round barrows would not have been retained, and still survive, within hillforts. However once that reverence had gone, great source of building stone! And the nearer a site was to later habitation, the more chance of complete removal.

The thing that bugs me, however, is the hollowing out of upland cairns where it would have been just as easy - if not easier - to collect surface rock straight from the ground lower down the hill/mountain. A good example of this is at the Carnau'r Garreg Las I visited a couple of weeks back. Rock litters the mountainside, yet both cairns are substantially defaced internally. The 'storm shelter' theory is also tenuous here since the cairns lie well off the main east/west path traversing Y Mynydd Du, with some (albeit isolated) farms less than an easy hours descent to the NW? Such mutilation would have required a great deal of effort.... for what? Treasure hunting/unrecorded excavation would appear the most logical explanation.... people will be willing to go to lengths if there is the chance of substantial reward. Or could some ritualistic requirement have provided the necessary motive for destruction... sort of akin to incomers to an area saying 'your justification for ownership is your ancestors reside upon the hill.... well, they don't any more since we've got rid of them... we're in charge now'.

TJJ ,the distribution on the east side of the Irish sea is Cornwall and the western extremities of Wales .In Ireland it is the area west of the Welsh monuments (Wicklow to Wexford )but also much of the north ( Aughnacliffe is on the southern edge of this distribution ) plus some in the west central area centred on Galway .

Thanks Tiompan, I'll be travelling to Glengariff from Wexford so will do a bit of research on where the Wexford portal tombs are .. just been reading up on Ballybrittas, although the one photograph here does not look promising.

Thanks a mill! That's just the kind of thing we have over here. Identical. There's no doubt about it. Tremendous stuff. Has anyone else any more?