Brown Rigg Howe is a bowl barrow on the hills east of Danby. It is a scheduled ancient monument, but despite its obvious age was used as the base for a Second World War searchlight emplacement. The ancient barrow is 1.5m high and has a 16m diameter, and is an earth-covered stone mound built over a grave.
The searchlight platform is a 0.9m concrete square, built on the south-east side of the barrow. About 1m from the corners are four triangular plates that once carried a circular rail that allowed the searchlight to be rotated. The searchlight was part of the defensive works for the Danby Beacon Chain Home Radar Station, an essential part of the British air defence system during the Second World War.
The barrow can easily be reached on foot. There is some parking at Danby Beacon, at a corner in a modern road. An old track runs east from this car park towards Brown Rigg End. The howe is just to the north of this track, about two-thirds of a mile east of the car park.
Grid Reference: NZ 745 094