Raven Tor Triple Cairn

Also known as:
Beeley Moor Triple Cairn
Nearest town:
Bakewell (6km W)
OS reference:
SK279667
OS sheet:
119
Latitude:
53° 11' 46.61 N
Longitude:
1° 34' 56.39 W
Added to TMA by

Sites within Raven Tor Triple Cairn

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Images

Image of Raven Tor Triple Cairn (Cairn) by stubob

2002. Looking back to the Triple Cairn from the, now 2013 near invisible, rectangular cairn.

stubob
stubob Feb 3, 2013
Image of Raven Tor Triple Cairn (Cairn) by Emma A

Looking along the triple cairn. The heather is quite high around and on the cairn.
Stanton Moor is in the background as well as Minninglow, Aleck Low, End Low and other sites on the horizon.

Image credit: Emma Alsop
Emma A
Emma A Oct 4, 2012
Image of Raven Tor Triple Cairn (Cairn) by Emma A

The triple cairn peeking out of the heather. Only the stones of the central mound are visible from a distance.

Image credit: Emma Alsop
Emma A
Emma A Oct 4, 2012
Image of Raven Tor Triple Cairn (Cairn) by GLADMAN

Was ever there a more exquisite little monument..... and so obscure?

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jul 18, 2010

Articles

Raven Tor Triple Cairn

stubob
stubob Oct 28, 2014

It’s taken 12years for the heather to claim back the Triple Cairn. But it’s just about completed the job.
The kerbstones, the most impressive thing, to me, surrounding the cairns are completely covered and the only visible part is a small stoney area on its highest part, and this is only visible when you’re right on top of the cairn.

Shame really, but the moor hasn’t been managed after the Right To Roam came in, and the grouse shooting stopped at roughly the same time.

Raven Tor Triple Cairn

Emma A
Emma A Oct 4, 2012

Had a bit of a job finding this as we’d headed too far to the east and ended up amongst lots of quarry lumps and bumps and thigh-high heather (tough going if you have short legs!). We found the triple cairn eventually though and it’s unmistakeable once you’re there. Wonderful views – barrows galore on the horizon.

The disused quarry for parking is at SK 282662 not SK 282684 as stated below. There is also a little layby further along the road to the west.

Raven Tor Triple Cairn

stubob
stubob Mar 10, 2011

As Postman says very overgrown now...only two of the cairns remain visible and a small section of the kerbstones.
The rectangular setting nearby is now completely heather covered.

Raven Tor Triple Cairn

postman
postman Oct 9, 2008

This was my second visit to the triple cairn but it didn’t make it any easier to find . I parked in the quarry entrance by the T junction and made our way on to the moor. But Arnie my 11 yr old Jack Russell was finding it hard going and I had to carry him through some of the higher heather. Too far to the right had I taken us so we struggled through the unpathed moor along the edge of the small plattau that is Raven Tor. Eventaually we found the cairns and Arnie immediatly set to finding a rock to chew. It is a bit more overgrown than the last time I came but really overgrown compared to the other pictures. Come see the triple cairn now before it is lost forever (he says melodramaticly) and enjoy the ethereal beauty of the Peak District (he says earnestly).

Raven Tor Triple Cairn

fitzcoraldo
fitzcoraldo Dec 2, 2004

No need for hopping gates anymore, thanks to the wonderful right to roam and the nice little walkers gate.
The moor is a bizarre place with huge post-industrial piles of rocks, quarries and pits all over the place.
The Triple Cairn is an incredible site and considering the surrounding industrial landscape it’s a wonder that it has survived. The kerbing is suberb and the views across the dales are second to none. Stu even spotted a fox running across the moor.

Definitely a megalithic jewel and proof that even in prehistory people liked to do things ‘a little differently’ in the Peaks.

Unfortunately a modern cairn has recently been built into the middle of the centre cairn.

Raven Tor Triple Cairn

Moth
Moth Jul 17, 2003

Sunday 13 July 2003
The entrance to Stubob’s disused ‘Wragg’s Quarry’ and Raven Tor is at an (unsigned) gate, at 119 282684, as prescribed. So we parked and hopped over it. As we walked along the track it was soon clear that this was indeed a smallish disused quarry. Didn’t see any ‘private’ signs….

The track is a bit of a dead end, and on the way back we discovered that at a point before the track bears right, there is a fairly gentle heather covered upward slope off to the left. At the top a wire fence is visible. Go up this slope and climb over the fence – it’s not too difficult if you find a post with diagonal supports attached.

If you carry on to the end as we did, you’ll either have to turn back or scramble up a very steep slope. That is, of course, what we did….

Whichever way you take, you still have to climb the fence and are on a fairly pathless bit of heather covered moorland. There are many pits, presumably from unmechanised quarrying, but all the ones we saw are easily visible.

Its worth taking care though and in any case the ground is very uneven underfoot and it would be easy to twist an ankle or strain a knee. Don’t wear shorts (I did) unless you have longish boots on (I didn’t) – the heather doesn’t scratch too badly, but it does fill your boots and socks with uncomfortable and annoying seeds!

I reckon if I hadn’t emptied them out when we got back to the car, I could’ve dug up what I laughingly call my lawns* and had a Derbyshire heather moorland-style garden. It’d be an improvement.

*More like a couple of rectangles of weeds, with a moderately bad infestation of grass.

It will get quite boggy or squishy pretty easily too I reckon – the moor, not my garden.

Once over the fence, stomp more or less north-west. You’ll see lots of lumps and bumps with rocks on, particularly in front of you and to the left. None of those that we investigated were anything interesting and I could sense John’s faith waning, so we stopped bothering and pressed on north-west towards Fallinge Edge.

We missed Raven Tor (single) Cairn, probably as a result.

For a while though, we were able to follow a satisfyingly crunchy dry track where I assume the heather had burnt, last year perhaps?. Sorry, I’m not really a country boy, though I’m enthusiastic and willing to learn!

Once we got ‘close to the edge’ (great album!) we followed along it to the right, north-eastish. Beautiful views. I absolutely love the juxtaposition of high wild moorland looking out on rolling, lush, cultivated land. And that’s what this is like. I couldn’t wait to find the triple cairn!

And about half an hour after climbing the fence (including investigation of a few ‘red herrings’) I spotted Raven Tor Triple Cairn! I just spread my arms wide to ‘present’ it to John and grinned my biggest grin for a long time. What a setting!!!!

A few seconds later. I realised I’d not put a new film in my camera and the spares were still in the car…. A certain amount of swearing and gnashing of teeth followed, but receded fairly quickly with the thrill of finding this place. The photos on this website show the cairns perfectly anyway!

‘One of Derbyshire’s best kept secrets’ our man Stu calls it. And he ain’t kidding! I’ve never seen anything like it. For a seasoned ‘stone-spotter’ this is something out of the ordinary. The photos on the Raven Tor Triple Cairn page speak for themselves much better than I can describe it.

The cairn nearest the ‘edge’ looks like it may have been added later, as its arc overlaps with the middle cairn, whereas the other 2 cairns more or less complete their arcs, though they seem to ‘share’ a section of kerb. Fascinating.

I would have said that the rectangular setting was closer than 30 ft away, but I could be wrong. I didn’t pay much attention to be quite honest – the ‘triple’ cairn held my attention too strongly.

Left to my own devices I’d have doubted the origins of the rectangular cairn, but if greater authorities or excavation have proved it ‘genuine’ I can’t argue. I can’t provide any evidence, it just doesn’t seem right or to make any sense to me. It just looks randomly plonked near the triple cairn. Ho hum.

Thrashed back across the moor (really hard work on the way back), discovered the gentler heather covered slope down to the quarry track, missed Raven Tor (single) Cairn. Again.

Raven Tor Triple Cairn

stubob
stubob Dec 6, 2002

This must be one of Derbyshires best kept secrets, a triple cairn on Fallinge Edge nr Beeley Moor. The kerb stones remain and the middle cairn has a double row of stones. The length of the cairns overall is around 50ft.

The stones on the northern side of the cairn are quite large, a little section of the kerb is missing in the NW, where a medieval lead bole was built, but otherwise it is complete.

The easiest way to get there is to park near ‘wraggs’ disused quarry SK282684, jump over the gate and follow the track to the edge of the moor. OK so it says private......but.

Outstanding views from the cairn, with Minninglow prominent on the horizon in the west.

Miscellaneous

Raven Tor Triple Cairn
Cairn(s)
stubob
stubob Dec 9, 2002

When the triple cairn was excavated at the end of the 60’s, two of the cairns had thick layer of white/pale sand covering the burial ( one of the three cairns is thought to have been added later ). The oval cairn/barrow on Harland Edge and Hob Hurst’s House also had the same deposits of this sand, which was man made by grinding stones.

Only 2 other Derbyshire cairns have this deposit and are located on Stanton Moor.

When the excavation started it looked like the cairn had been illegally dug. Bones and ash were found scattered over a largish area. A ‘Boots’ carriar bag hidden under a stone was found to contain pottery sherds and large pieces of bone.

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