The case of the missing Tumuli – John Cross Rigg

  A couple of previous posts have looked at the Old Wife’s Neck standing stone, which stands on the Bronze Age earthworks on John Cross Rigg – an area of moorland 5 miles south of Whitby. The old OS maps show the 780m long earthworks running in an east-west line across the moor, but in addition to this, the maps also mark hundreds of small tumuli on the north and south sides of these ancient banks and ditches. The OS maps record similar groups of tumuli at other prehistoric sites on the North York Moors, and these are usually small piles of stones known as clearance cairns. Previous visits to John Cross Rigg had only noted a few of these cairns, and so it was assumed that the blanket heather was covering most of the other mounds. (The more detailed 25″ OS map from 1893 actually plots around 1300 tumuli in total, with 850 to the north of the earthworks, and 450 on the south side.)

The Old Wife’s Neck revisited – John Cross Rigg, Fylingdales

Prologue

  In August 2025, a fire in Langdale forest (on the North York Moors) spread onto the nearby moorland called John Cross Rigg, and the whole area burned for several weeks. The land was closed off for months afterwards, and when it was finally safe to visit the area, it was just an expanse of blackened earth. All the heather had been burnt off, and in large areas all the under lying peat had burned away too. Some how the Old Wife’s Neck stone was unscathed, and there was even grass still growing around it, so it seems to have been protected. While the fire was a disaster for the ecology of the moor, it also revealed a mass of archaeology that lay hidden beneath the carpet of heather. Among the features that are now clearly visible are the series of Bronze Age bank and ditch earthworks which extend for over 750m in an east-west alignment across the moor. The Old Wife’s Neck stone sits on the western end of these earthworks, although their original purpose is unclear.

More Treasures from Denmark

  The previous post highlighted some of the archaeological treasures in the National Museum in Copenhagen, which holds an amazing collection of gold, silver and bronze objects from Denmark’s ancient past. These were just a fraction of the items on display, so here is another selection.

Denmark’s Golden Age

  A recent stay in Copenhagen provided the opportunity to visit the National Museum in that “Wonderful” city. I had not done any research beforehand so i was not really expecting much – i only knew that there was a Viking section, and some Bog bodies, which might be of interest. But how wrong i was, and in the end just the prehistory section alone was quite staggering. World famous archaeological artifacts that i had only ever seen in books were on display in room after room. I was literally like a kid in a sweetshop peering into cabinets of amazing archaeological treasures.

Nine Standards Rigg Cairns – Cumbria

  (This post is a bit of a ‘Filler’ as i have been unable to visit any sites for the last 3 months. This has been due to a leg injury which has been very slow to heal, and has stopped me driving or walking any distance. However things are finally improving and i am hoping to get out and about again.)

  Back in October 2025 i tagged along with Gavin Parry (link) and Graham Vasey (link) to look at the row of tall cairns on Nine Standards Rigg near Kirkby Stephen in Cumbria. These cairns are something of a mystery as it is unclear when or why they were built, and no real history or tradition has survived to explain them.