Reasons for Designation
The Isles of Scilly, the westernmost of the granite masses of south west
England, contain a remarkable abundance and variety of archaeological remains
from over 4000 years of human activity. The remote physical setting of the
islands, over 40km beyond the mainland in the approaches to the English
Channel, has lent a distinctive character to those remains, producing many
unusual features important for our broader understanding of the social
development of early communities.
Throughout the human occupation there has been a gradual submergence of the
islands' land area, providing a stimulus to change in the environment and its
exploitation. This process has produced evidence for responses to such change
against an independent time-scale, promoting integrated studies of
archaeological, environmental and linguistic aspects of the islands'
settlement.
The islands' archaeological remains demonstrate clearly the gradually
expanding size and range of contacts of their communities. By the post-
medieval period (from AD 1540), the islands occupied a nationally strategic
location, resulting in an important concentration of defensive works
reflecting the development of fortification methods and technology from the
mid 16th to the 20th centuries. An important and unusual range of post-
medieval monuments also reflects the islands' position as a formidable hazard
for the nation's shipping in the western approaches.
The exceptional preservation of the archaeological remains on the islands has
long been recognised, producing an unusually full and detailed body of
documentation, including several recent surveys.
Round cairns are funerary monuments of Bronze Age date (c.2000-700 BC). They
were constructed as mounds of earth and stone rubble, up to 40m in external
diameter, though usually considerably smaller, covering single or multiple
burials. A kerb of edge-set stones sometimes bounds the edge of the mound.
Burials were placed in small pits, or on occasion within a box-like structure
of stone slabs called a cist, set into the old ground surface or dug into the
body of the cairn. Round cairns can occur as isolated monuments, in small
groups or in larger cemeteries.
Round cairns form a high proportion of the 387 surviving cairns recorded on
the Isles of Scilly. Their considerable variation in form and longevity as a
monument type provides important information on the diversity of beliefs,
burial practices and social organisation in the Bronze Age and a substantial
proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of preservation.
These round cairns near the Clapper of Works have survived well, with no
evident or recorded disturbance and they have not been excavated. The presence
of these cairns in a group containing various other classes of cairn shows the
diversity of funerary activity during the Bronze Age. The relationships
between this and the other cairn group, the nearby prehistoric field systems
and the topography on this small island, demonstrates well the nature of land
use among prehistoric communities and the organisation of funerary and farming
activities.
Details
The monument includes two closely-spaced prehistoric round cairns situated on
the southern slope of a shallow valley north of Clapper of Works, on the
southern part of Gugh in the Isles of Scilly.
The cairns are situated 20m apart on a WSW-ENE axis and each survives with a
circular, largely heather-covered mound of heaped rubble. The WSW cairn has a
mound 7.5m in diameter and 0.6m high, while the ENE cairn has a mound 7m in
diameter and 0.6m high.
They form a distinct pair of similar round cairns within a larger, more
dispersed, group of 22 cairns, including two entrance graves, which occupy the
southern part of Gugh. Twenty of the cairns, including this monument, are
located on or immediately north of a low ridge which incorporates the Clapper
of Works and the Carn of Works, crossing the southern part of the island
transversely. The other two cairns are located south of the ridge. Part of a
prehistoric field system is located beyond the eastern limit of this cairn
group on Dropnose Point, 300m to the north east of this monument. Another
large and diverse cairn group, partly integrated with a prehistoric field
system, occupies Kittern Hill on northern Gugh, 450m to the north.
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.
