Seamer Beacon Barrows and Baron Albert's Tower

Seamer Beacon contains three round barrows arranged around a conspicuous natural rise overlooking the Scarborough area. The highest mound survives approximately ten metres across and one metre high. Its summit was levelled during the nineteenth century for Baron Albert’s Tower, a stone folly whose ruins form part of the protected monument. Limited investigation in 1925 identified a V-shaped ditch around the central barrow. A second mound extends from the northern slope as a platform about eleven metres across, later partly levelled as a viewpoint. The southern mound projects from lower ground and measures approximately twenty metres across and two metres high. The two hillside barrows are not known to have been excavated. Their unusual arrangement reflects deliberate use of the natural hillock, while the folly and viewing platform record much later changes to a prehistoric burial setting. Period: Prehistoric barrows; nineteenth-century folly and alterations Grid reference: TA 00833 87617 Protection: Scheduled monument Source: Historic England, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1008486 (Open Government Licence). © Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Banner photo: "Seamer Beacon" by Christopher Hall, via Geograph (https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4162501), licensed CC BY-SA 2.0.