Platform cairn with outer bank 825m NNW of Higher Draynes Farm

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 by Draynes Common has survived substantially intact despite the modern hedgebank clipping its extreme NNE periphery. The setting of this cairn with respect to the broadly contemporary settlement sites and field systems bordering the Draynes Common ridge demonstrates well the relationship of funerary practices with settlement and farming activities among prehistoric communities.

Details

The monument includes a prehistoric funerary platform cairn with an outer bank situated on the southern crest of a broad ridge largely occupied by Draynes Common on southern Bodmin Moor. The monument also includes a medieval or later worked stone slab re-used as a basal slab in the modern hedgebank passing across the northern side of the cairn. The cairn survives with a turf-covered circular platform of heaped rubble, up to 14m in diameter and 0.25m high. Around the periphery of the platform is an outer bank, up to 2m wide and 0.5m above the surrounding ground level. A post-medieval hedgebank, accompanied along its southern side by a ditch, 1.5m wide and 0.2m deep, crosses the NNE periphery of the cairn such that the cairn's platform now survives to a width of 11.8m NNE-SSW. The basal stone facing-courses of that part of the modern hedgebank contained within the monument include a medieval or later slab bearing a pecked groove around its exposed face. The slab is formed as a cuboid block of granite, its exposed flat face measuring 0.6m square with an irregular projection, 0.1m long, from one lower corner. This face bears a peripheral pecked groove, 3cm wide and 1cm deep, delineating a near-square area measuring 0.45m wide and 0.4m high and 1cm deep. The block extends at least 0.5m into the hedgebank. Beyond the monument, a broadly contemporary round cairn is located on the south-west crest of the ridge, 320m to the north-west, while prehistoric hut circle settlements and field systems are situated on the lower slopes bordering the ridge from 1.1km to the WSW and 1.3km to the NNE.

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.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

15277

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
consulted 1993, Carter, A./Fletcher, M.J./RCHME, 1:2500 AP plot and field trace for SX 2170,
consulted 1993, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1283,

End of official list entry

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