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Vandals dig up 4,000-year-old Bronze Age burial mound at Somerset's Quantock Hills, exposing it to irreversible damage

From the Newshound archive · first published 19 September 2026.

Fire Beacon Cairn on the Quantock Hills, a 4,000-year-old Bronze Age burial mound that archaeologists warn contains irreplaceable DNA and human remains evidence that could be destroyed if rocks are disturbed.
Fire Beacon Cairn on the Quantock Hills, a 4,000-year-old Bronze Age burial mound that archaeologists warn contains irreplaceable DNA and human remains evidence that could be destroyed if rocks are disturbed.

Rocks have been torn from Fire Beacon Cairn, a scheduled Bronze Age burial mound some 4,000 years old near Crowcombe in Somerset's Quantock Hills National Landscape, with a landowner discovering the damage on two separate occasions. Rangers and archaeologists suspect someone using a metal detector at night may have triggered the destruction after picking up a signal there. Interfering with the monument is a criminal offence under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, punishable by an unlimited fine or up to two years in prison. The site has now been targeted for the second time in recent years.

Head ranger Iain Porter warned the site 'is not a pile of stones' but a scheduled monument revealing the 'ceremonial nature of that landscape historically'.

Archaeologists fear any dating material or buried finds inside the cairn may have been irreversibly disturbed by whoever dug into the mound.

Repairing the damage is expected to come at a financial cost, with Historic England now alerted alongside local rangers.

MoreThe SunYobs vandalise 4,000-year-old Bronze Age burial mound after removing rocks from protected historical site - The Sun
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