The Cornish word for cairn is karn (from karnow, meaning rock piles), and it has been suggested that Cornwall's ancient name Kernow is related. William Copeland Borlase classified ridge-top cairns such as these in the most common category a bowl- or cone-shaped tumulus. He also referred to them as sepulchral mounds but admitted that burials had not been found at many. Brown Willy Summit Cairn has never been excavated and folklore suggests an ancient Cornish king may lie entombed underneath. Nicholas Johnson and Peter Rose dated nine of the cairns on Bodmin Moor, eight gave mean date ranges between 2162 and 1746 cal BC, suggesting the early Bronze Age was the main building period for cairns of this type. These are amongst the most intact due to their remote and inaccessible location. Many rocks from similar cairns have been spoiled and removed over centuries of neglect to be re-used in dry stone walling and other local construction.