Neolithic cairn in Yorkshire given extra protection after walkers remove stones

A rare and remarkable 5,000-year-old monument that is an example of one of the earliest visible structures in England is to receive extra protection because walkers, sometimes innocently, have been removing and moving stones.

- Mark Brown

Dudderhouse Hill long cairn in the Yorkshire Dales has been granted "scheduled monument" status by the government, making it a site of national importance with greater legal protection.

The long cairn is remarkable in many ways and helps us understand the lives, deaths and beliefs of the first farming communities, said Paul Jeffery, the national listings manager at Historic England, which has advised the government. "This time was the beginning of everything."

To the untrained eye Dudderhouse Hill may look like a large pile of stones in the middle of nowhere and that helps explain the often unintentional damage, said Jeffery.