Reasons for Designation
Bodmin Moor, the largest of the Cornish granite uplands, has long been
recognised to have exceptional preservation of archaeological remains. The
Moor has been the subject of detailed archaeological survey and is one of the
best recorded upland landscapes in England. The extensive relict landscapes of
prehistoric, medieval and post-medieval date provide direct evidence for human
exploitation of the Moor from the earliest prehistoric period onwards. The
well-preserved and often visible relationship between settlement sites, field
systems, ceremonial and funerary monuments as well as later industrial remains
provides significant insights into successive changes in the pattern of land
use through time. 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 under 250 known examples of this monument
class nationally. As a rare monument type exhibiting considerable variation in
form, a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of
preservation.
This platform cairn on Brown Gelly hill has survived well despite some minor
and well-defined disturbance from antiquarian excavation. The cairn clearly
retains its unusual form and is the largest platform cairn known on Bodmin
Moor. The presence of an orthostatic slab in the cairn's outer bank is a
further unusual feature. This cairn is contained in one of the very few groups
of large cairns on Bodmin Moor. The prominent setting of this group and the
diversity of cairns included within it demonstrates well the nature of
funerary practices during the Bronze Age and the relationship between cairn
size and topographical setting. The proximity of this cairn to the broadly
contemporary settlement sites and field systems on the Browngelly Downs shows
well the relationship of funerary activity with farming and habitation during
the Bronze Age.
Details
The monument includes a large prehistoric embanked platform cairn with a
central mound situated near the northern end of the broad summit ridge of
Brown Gelly hill on southern Bodmin Moor. The cairn is located towards the
northern end of a linear group of five large cairns arranged along the ridge.
The cairn survives with a turf-covered circular platform of heaped rubble, 32m
in diameter. The platform has a 3m wide periphery, rising to 0.5m high, within
which is an outer bank, similarly of heaped rubble, up to 2.5m wide and 1m
high. The outer face of this bank shows traces of coursed rubble in several
places and contains several large boulders considered to form a spaced kerb.
Among these boulders is a large end-set slab, called an orthostat, projecting
from the bank's outer face in its south-east sector. This slab, 1m high, 0.7m
wide and 0.25m thick, stands with its broad face orientated NW-SE,
approximately in line with the axis of the northern three cairns in this
linear group. Within the outer bank, the platform maintains an almost flat
surface, up to 0.7m high. Situated at the platform's centre is a small,
circular, heaped rubble mound, 10m in diameter and rising 1.2m above the
platform surface. The mound has an inverted-bowl shape, truncated at the
centre by a hollow, 3.5m in diameter and up to 1m deep, due to an unrecorded
antiquarian excavation. Beyond the monument, this linear group extends over
375m in a slight curve along the summit ridge of Brown Gelly, the nearest
being located 35m to the north-west. Extensive broadly contemporary settlement
sites and field systems are located on the eastern slope of the
Browngelly Downs, from 442m to the south-east.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.
