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Site Details

Spy Law Beacon cairn (Rothley with Hollinghill)

Spy Law Beacon (1181ft above sea level). The summit is capped by a cairn of stones, also a circle of stone 36ft in diameter. This hill overlooks Lordenshaws Camp to the north-east. (1)

NZ 04549857. The cairn consists of a mass of stones covering 10m diameter and with a maximum height of 1.5m. It has been much mutilated and has been rebuilt in places. The purpose of the cairn could not be ascertained; it may have covered a burial or, as the name of the hill suggests, be the remains of a beacon platform. It may merely have been erected as a landmark. The situation, on the hill summit, gives an excellent all-round view except to the west.
NZ 04349854. The circle of stones referred to by authority 1 is merely the foundations and collapsed wall of an old sheep stell. (2)

Published survey (25 inch) correct. (Shown as 'Cairn'). (3)
N10725
Post Medieval (1540 to 1901)
Bronze Age (2600BC to 700BC)
FIELD OBSERVATION, Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Field Investigation 1957; E Geary
FIELD OBSERVATION, Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Field Investigation 1971; B H Pritchard
MEASURED SURVEY, Simonside Landscape Project 1999; LANCASTER UNIVERSITY ARCHAEOLOGICAL UNIT


Source of Reference
Local History of Rothley with Hollinghill
Local History of Rothley with Hollinghill

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