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 Dinnever Hill has survived substantially intact.
Despite minor disturbance from an unrecorded antiquarian excavation near its
centre, this cairn retains clear evidence for its original and unusual form.
The proximity of this cairn to other broadly contemporary cairns, ritual
monuments, settlement sites and field systems demonstrates well the
organisation and development of land use during the Bronze Age and the
relationship of funerary practices with settlement and ritual activities among
prehistoric communities.
Details
The monument includes a prehistoric funerary platform cairn situated on a
slight crest on the northern midslope of Dinnever Hill on north-west Bodmin
Moor.
The cairn is visible as a circular platform of heaped rubble, 11.5m in
diameter, with sides rising steeply to a flat upper surface, 7.5m in diameter
and centred slightly south of the cairn's centre. The upper surface is
generally 0.5m high, sloping in conformity with the surrounding hillslope, but
it is 0.8m on the northern side where the hillslope drops more steeply from
the natural crest. The perimeter of the upper surface has a slightly raised
rubble rim, 0.75m wide and up to 0.15m high. An unrecorded antiquarian
excavation has produced a circular hollow, 4m in diameter and 0.3m deep, in
the southern part of the upper surface; spoil from this excavation has been
heaped around the northern edge of the hollow.
This monument is located in one of several areas of Bodmin Moor that contain
an unusually large grouping of prehistoric ritual and funerary monuments. In
this grouping, in the vicinity of this monument, other prehistoric cairns of
various types are located 250m to the south and 310m to the ENE on Dinnever
Hill. Broadly contemporary ritual monuments nearby include the Stannon Stone
Circle, 460m to the north-east, within sight of this cairn on an adjacent
spur, and a ritual stone setting, 500m to the NNE. Prehistoric hut circle
settlements, field systems and linear boundaries are situated on this
hillslope from 60m to the north-west and 160m to the east of this monument.
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.
