Blawearie Cairn

Nearest town:
Alnwick (14km ESE)
OS reference:
NU081223
OS sheet:
75
Latitude:
55° 29' 39.42 N
Longitude:
1° 52' 18.41 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Blawearie Cairn (Kerbed Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Looking southwest, with Old Bewick hillfort on the skyline.

Image credit: A. Brookes (20.10.2021)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Sep 26, 2022
Image of Blawearie Cairn (Kerbed Cairn) by postman

The closest two flat stones are I think Kerb stones rather than cist lids, unlike the furthest flat stone which is still next to it’s cist.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jun 23, 2019
Image of Blawearie Cairn (Kerbed Cairn) by Hob

This is the rock outcrop next to the cairn. I would bet a chocolate croissant that it has been inhabited since the mesolithic and is crucial to the placement of the cairn and perhaps to the carvings at Old Bewick.

It is a very special place.

Image credit: IH
Hob
Hob Jul 19, 2010
Image of Blawearie Cairn (Kerbed Cairn) by caealun

With a dog for scale. The angular position of the kerb stones reminds me of Bryn Cader Faner.

Image credit: Derfel
caealun
caealun Jun 30, 2010
Image of Blawearie Cairn (Kerbed Cairn) by Rhiannon

This necklace was found by Greenwell in one of the cists. The long beads are jet, and the discs are made of shale. They must have been lying undisturbed, because the Canon says “They had been arranged in successive series of ten round beads, then a long one, then ten round ones again, and so on.”

I wonder if the jet came from Whitby and the shale from Kimmeridge. Even if not, the materials or finished beads must still have travelled some distance?

Also I wonder who the book’s illustrator was – it is packed with excellent engravings.

Also mentioned here
biodiversitylibrary.org/item/110629#page/211/mode/1up

Image credit: Illustration from Greenwell's 'British Barrows'
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Mar 23, 2010
Image of Blawearie Cairn (Kerbed Cairn) by pebblesfromheaven

Taken 8-2-2003. Viewed from the east, showing Old Bewick to the left of the picture and Cheviot in the background.

.o0O0o.

Image credit: Pebblethief
pebblesfromheaven
pebblesfromheaven Feb 8, 2003

Articles

Blawearie Cairn

thelonious
thelonious May 22, 2016

30/04/2016 – It was supposed to be a quick bob up Ros Castle and back on the way to Wooler but this area had other ideas for us. We started from the car park just past Hepburn. Short walk up the road and then a climb up to Ros Castle. The views from here were good. We had just driven down from Aberdeen in the morning and had made better time than I thought we would. A quick look at the map showed a hillfort, cup and ring marked rocks and a cairn to the south. With still plenty of day left, we left Ros Castle to take a look.

It’s a nice walk over Hepburn Moor to Blawearie Cairn. The cairn is very good. I can’t think of another like it that I have visited before. Great big stones surrounding a ring made of small stones (containing cists) with a small cairn of stones in the middle. The location is good and the whole site has a very peaceful feeling to it. I liked it very much.

We carried on to the excellent cup and ring marked stones and hillfort at Old Bewick.

On the way back we just had to visit this cairn again as the sun was still shinning and the stones did look good. Finally we left to head back to the car via the Hillfort at Hepburn Crags.

What should have been a half hour walk turned into a 10 mile plus day out with hillforts, cup and ring marked rocks and cairns in a wonderful landscape. I love days like this.

Blawearie Cairn

postman
postman Aug 5, 2011

We parked by the farm to the southwest, asked for permission to leave the car there and started the long walk up hill. Phil elected to stay in the car again so Eric was my only company, which i’m always grateful for.
It wasn’t too steep or too far, so there wasnt any “are we nearly there yet” we both spotted the “cairn” at the same time, Bob was my uncle.

This place is a bit of an enigma, ever since I saw it on here Ive wanted to come, tramping the Welsh wildernesses have given me an appreciation for the simple cairn, but this is by no means a simple cairn.
Imagine.... a stone circle of contiguous stones, with a cairn immediately inside the stones, but not filling the interior, then put 4,5, or 6 cists in the cairn, then a small cairn inside it all and another one outside to the north.
Plus in the near distance a fine hillfort, with lots of mind bending rock art, good weather with a setting sun that my crappy camera doesnt seem to acknowledge, plus all the hills and what have you got..... A happy Postman

Blawearie Cairn

pebblesfromheaven
pebblesfromheaven Feb 8, 2003

Very hard to describe this, it’s a circular, curbed site with a wall within, containing cists, with mounds inside and surrounding. I think it has been restored, but only marked on the OS map as a cairn, it’s much more.

The hillfort and carved stones of Old Bewick are not too far away and the mother hill visible as always.

The ruined farmstead nearby is also interesting (well it was for me), as are the rocky outcrops beside, which have been partly walled for shelters. You can see how people wanted to live up here. But you can also understand how it fell into ruin! Tried to work out when it was last lived in, perhaps early 20th century. Looks like it’s used a lot by campers, and is on a mapped cycle route.

A lovely day although very overcast. Definitely one to come back to when sunnier.

.o0O0o.

Miscellaneous

Blawearie Cairn
Kerbed Cairn
fitzcoraldo
fitzcoraldo Mar 29, 2003

Pebblethief mentions Blawearie House (the ruin). For a potted history of this place, check Stan Beckensall’s lovely book “Northumberland, The Power of Place” published in 2001 by Tempus.

Miscellaneous

Blawearie Cairn
Kerbed Cairn
fitzcoraldo
fitzcoraldo Mar 22, 2003

The Cairn was excavated by the legendary Canon Greenwell in the 1860’s where he reported a central cist from which a pot had been taken. It was also excavated by the mighty Stan Beckensall 1984 – 1986 where he found further cists, amber beads, a jet bead, flint flakes, a melon bead, a number of cremations and a copper ring.

Sites within 20km of Blawearie Cairn

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