What is a pillow mound?

What a pillow mound is

Rabbits were brought to England from the continent, and Historic England dates the tradition of warren construction from the 12th century. Early warrens belonged mainly to the higher levels of society, but by the 16th and 17th centuries warrens were common on most manors and estates, and Historic England records about 1,000 to 2,000 warrens nationally. A warren can contain from one to forty pillow mounds and cover up to about 600 hectares, and some mounds contain stone-lined burrows. Pillow mounds are numerous on Dartmoor and in the hills of Glamorgan and Powys, where they may be rectangular, L-shaped, cross-shaped or circular.

How pillow mounds look on LiDAR

A pillow mound shows as a small, regular, flat-topped oblong mound, often with a shallow ditch around it, usually in a group of similar mounds laid out on a gentle slope. A local relief model is the best view because the mounds are low, often under a metre high, and positive openness emphasises their sharp edges. Warren boundary banks and enclosures may also show nearby.

See LiDAR visualisations explained for what each method shows.

What can look like one

Pillow mounds are often mistaken for long barrows, which are much larger and older, and for building platforms, short field banks and spoil heaps. Older mounds, including barrows and mottes, were sometimes reused as rabbit breeding places.

Protection

Some well-preserved pillow mounds and warrens are scheduled monuments, protected in England by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 and in Wales by the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023.

Examples on the LiDAR

Where they are

Counties with the most pillow mounds that have a page here.

More examples