Platform cairn 180m northwest of Hensbarrow Farm
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Scheduled Monument
- List Entry Number:
- 1007292
- Date first listed:
- 30-Jan-1980
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Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Scheduled Monument
- List Entry Number:
- 1007292
- Date first listed:
- 30-Jan-1980
- Location Description:
- Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
Location
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Cornwall (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Roche
- National Grid Reference:
- SW 99118 57445
Reasons for Designation
Platform cairns are funerary monuments covering single or multiple burials and dating to the Early Bronze Age (c.2000-1600 BC). They were constructed as low flat-topped mounds of stone rubble up to 40m in external diameter. Some examples have other features, including peripheral banks and internal mounds, constructed on this platform. A kerb of edge-set stones sometimes bounds the edges of the platform, bank or mound, or all three. Platform cairns occur as isolated monuments, in small groups, or in cairn cemeteries. In the latter instances they are normally found alongside cairns of other types. Although no precise figure is available, current evidence indicates that there are less than 250 known examples of this monument class nationally. Despite partial early excavation, the platform cairn 180m northwest of Hensbarrow Farm survives comparatively well. It will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction, longevity, territorial significance, social organisation, funerary and ritual practices and overall landscape context.
Details
The monument includes a platform cairn, situated on the upper south west facing slopes of Hensbarrow Beacon, and between the extensive china clay works of Goonbarrow, Gunheath and Littlejohn's. The cairn survives as a low, flat-topped circular platform of stones and earth measuring approximately 22m in diameter with a peripheral rim bank on the platform of up to 0.5m high and 1.5m wide. There are three early excavation hollows in the centre, east and west of varying size. The cairn was first described by R Thomas in around 1850.
Sources: HER:- PastScape Monument No:-430012
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- CO 1072
- Legacy System:
- RSM - OCN
Legal
This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 05-Jun-2026 at 14:21:35.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.