'Disappointment' at damage to 4,000-year-old mound

A ranger says he is disappointed after rocks were removed from a 4,000-year-old Bronze Age burial mound.

The damage to the scheduled monument, known as Fire Beacon Cairn, near Crowcombe on the Quantock Hills National Landscape in Somerset, was seen by a landowner on two occasions, and reported to the local rangers and Historic England.

Ian Porter, the head ranger on the Quantock Hills, said he wanted people to understand the historical value of the monuments.

"It's not a pile of stones - it's a very important historic site... showing the ceremonial nature of that landscape historically," he said.

The cairn is one of about 50 such monuments on the hills which are protected by law, making it illegal to move rocks or dig into.

The cairn, which is a human-made stack of stones used to denote a burial mound, is meant to be about 1.5m (4.9ft) high, and about 25m (82ft) in diameter.

"Archaeologists and heritage officers are very concerned because if there are any finds or if there is any archaeological evidence of use and dating material, that's where it's going to be," Porter said.

He added that he wanted visitors to the area to understand its importance, and said there would be a likely financial hit to make it right again.

Dr Richard Brunning, senior historic environment officer at the South West Heritage Trust, which looks after archaeology in Somerset, said "it is especially worrying" when monuments get damaged.

"They've survived this long, it'd be terrible just to be destroyed on someone's whim."

Brunning described the cairn as an "important relic of this very distant past".

"Archaeologically, they're very important when they're excavated because as they hold human remains that gives us a very good evidence for what past people were like.

"We can do all sorts of wonderful bits of science that you could never do in the past, such as looking at DNA from people buried that long ago," he said.

A Historic England spokesperson said the cairn on Fire Beacon had only recently been repaired after being vandalised two years ago.

They added: "We ask that the public remain vigilant and report any further vandalism to Historic England and the Quantock Hills National Landscape team."

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