NGR: SD 9403 3786. On Dovestones Moor to the southeast of Wycoller, Lancashire, are the remains of Brink Ends Cairn, a kerbed burial mound dating from the Middle Bronze Age (roughly 1,200-600 BC). The site takes its name from Brink Ends Farm, which is 200 metres to the east. However, today only a few piles of stones arranged in a roughly circular fashion are the only surviving remnant of this former burial cairn. Excavations on the ancient mound were carried out by Mr Stanley Cookson and Mr Herbert Hindle in 1971 and 1972 but no funerary artefacts were found, though some artefacts showing signs of burning were exca-vated from what might have been a hearth, and, also a few flints. There was thought to be an Iron Age hut circle just to the south of the cairn, and, a possible ancient settlement somewhere in this area too. The site can be reached from Wycoller village by walking along the track that runs southeast beside Wycoller beck for a mile, and, then out onto the rugged Dovestones Moor and Brink Ends Moor for another mile and onto the shoulder of a hill, keeping Brink Ends Farm in front of you. You can also reach it from a footpath running southeast from the Panoptican on the Haworth Road.

Peter Wightman writing in 1978 says of the Brink Ends Cairn: “The most recent discovery in this area is probably that of the late Stanley Cookson who uncovered a bronze age burial (c. 1500 B.C.) below Boulsworth.  This single grave was built on the shoulder of a hill, the cairn being 34 ft. in diameter and about 2ft. 6in. high at the centre.  No daggers, tools, or pottery were found but there were a few flint artefacts and all the stones were arranged as if there had been an urn.  Around the centre circle was an outer circle of stones six feet further away.  On what is presumed to be the hearth were charcoal and calcined bones.  There was also a small circular burnt stone with four sugar-lump sized pieces of coal charred only on the underside, and surrounding the hearth were lumps of a soapy-like substance, something of the nature of fat.  The inner part of the grave was laid very symmetrically but towards the outside less care seems to have been taken with the stones.  From the evidence we can only surmise the original use.  Mr Cookson’s theory was that it could have been the proposed burial site of a headman that never took place, or some token form of burial.  It could also be that a different burial rite had become adopted from that known to have been the custom of the bronze age people.  The practice of identifiable burials, with grave goods and pottery seems to have been abandoned at the beginning of the middle bronze age (c.1250 B.C.)  Possibly this grave is such.  Around this grave are curious growths of heather which might indicate the presence of other overgrown edifices, and looking down the valley towards Wycoller are innumerable other curious arrangements of stones that might have had some connection with this bronze age grave that overlooks them all.”

John Bentley (1975 & 1993) adds that: “A suspected Bronze Age burial mound at Brink Ends in Wycoller was excavated by Stanley Cookson in 1971 and 1972. Although no interment was discovered the remains of a fire was found in the centre of the mound with half-burnt twigs and coal. Some small cubes of coal stood on a fire-burnt stone yet the coal had only just begun to ignite.

“Boulder stone walls on the south side of Wycoller Beck suggest an Iron Age settlement and the occurrence of a clam bridge, the earliest and most primitive bridge in Wycoller, supports the theory. Stanley Cookson has strong suspicions that an Iron Age settlement existed in this area but only time and further exploration will tell.”

Sources / References & Related Websites:-

Bentley, John, Portrait of Wycoller, first published by Nelson Local History Soc. in 1975. Later published by Wycoller Country Park Project, Townhouse School, Nelson, Lancs, 1993.

Cookson, Stanley & Hindle, Herbert, Wycoller, Hendon Publishing Co. Ltd., Nelson, Lancs, 1973.

Wightman, Peter, Bonnie Colne, Hendon Publishing Co. Ltd., Nelson, Lancs, 1978.

Also check out TNA website: https://www.thenorthernantiquarian.org/2008/09/15/brink-ends-cairn/

More info here on Wycoller Country Park: https://www.visitnorthwest.com/sights/wycoller-country-park/

Copyright © Ray Spencer, The Journal of Antiquities, 2022.