The badly named Jepson’s Gate Cairn is actually located along the edge of a slight ridge, possibly the route of a very old track, to the Northeast of the better-known Pikestones.
Once when I was about ten years old I decided to visit the Pikestones on a very foggy day and decided to hide my bike behind the wall just up the hill from the Anglezarke Manor House, rather than at Jepson’s gate. Due to this choice and being young and inexperienced I missed the Pikestones altogether and actually found the Jepson’s Gate cairn. It was at the time a rounded cairn of stones like an upturned pie dish and to my knowledge unknown, it was however excavated in 1983, I later read. The mist was really thick over the moors and the whole experience was rather surreal.
I’d seen an illustration of the Pikestones in a book and knew I wasn’t at the right place but I was quite confused and made my way back to the road. I visited when I was a bit older but it wasn’t until the archaeological records started to appear on the internet that I found the cairn was a genuine ancient site that had been partially restored in the 90’s.
Jepson's Gate Cairn image by munki-boy
Looking at evidence for prehistoric human activity in the West Pennine Moors area.
