Priests Crown

Although accessioned as a natural feature by the English Heritage NMR after archaeological examination in the 1950’s; this curious feature in the landscape is worthy of some consideration. Priests Crown is perhaps notable today due to its inclusion in commercially available Ordnance Survey maps up until the latter half of the 20th Century, titled in the archaic font used to indicate sites of historic interest. There is seemingly no local folklore attached to this site and its elevated status on the maps is lost to us today. This site is shown today on larger scale maps and digital maps as Priest’s Crown, with the addition of the apostrophe transferring ownership of this crown from many to one. Perhaps due to people ‘discovering’ this site on the old maps and due to its enigmatic name there has been speculation that this ‘mysterious’ feature may be a prehistoric long cairn. From certain perspectives the outline of the central mound is suggestive of such a shape. However, on further investigation, the feature will be found to be rather assymetrical and perhaps not the familiar trapezoidal shape of a long cairn, with the mound rising above the surrounding landscape slightly, perhaps suggestive of a Priests Tonsure where only the crown of the head is shaved bare. Further to this, although Priests Crown is located on a prominent ridge of the hill, the feature does not seem to occupy the best position as we might assume a builder to select. In fact the ground can be seen to be sloping fairly steeply. This site should not be easlily dismissed as the historic map reference indicates some antiquity, and virtually every other prominent landscape feature in the vicinity has been shown to have been significant with clear evidence of occupation or use in antiquity. If we choose to take the name Priests Crown as a reference to the topographical shape of this feature only, we are free to discard religious connotations with regard to this site. The NMR classify this feature as a glacial mound, a deposit of rock left by retrating glaciers at the end of the last ice age; of which there are several more prominent local examples. Examination of the mound where erosion or minor quarrying has exposed the subsurface material reveals an underlying structure of large boulders with no clear regularity that would suggest the familiar stone kerbs associated with prehistoric cairn construction. Regardless of evidence, there is a strange regularity to the topography of this site perhaps suggestive of a natural feature that has been ‘enhanced’ by rough earthworks. It is also possible that this structure remains from a larger glacial deposit that has been partially removed. An aerial view of the Priests Crown site, the overall structure can be seen to be curiously uniform and readers are reminded of the steep slope of this area as before, thinking of a moat or henge structure. The central mound seems annoyingly asymmetrical but this may be uneven shadowing or the effects of weathering. There are examples of long cairns that are not symmetrical and the internal structure of such cairns are often mis-aligned or disjointed and this is taken to indicate a multiple stage construction or a partial re-build of an earlier structure. Midwinter sunrise on the equinox can be spectacular from Priests Crown.

Created: 27  November  2016  Edited: 29  November  2023