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.
Round cairns are funerary monuments covering single or multiple burials and
dating to the Bronze Age (c.2000 - 700 BC). They were constructed as mounds
of earth and stone rubble up to 40m in external diameter but usually
considerably smaller; a kerb of edge-set stones sometimes bounds the edges of
the mound. Burials were placed in small pits, or on occasion within a box-
like structure of stone slabs called a cist, let 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. Such groupings of round
cairns may also contain ring cairns. These are ritual monuments, also dating
to the Bronze Age, and comprise a circular bank of stones surrounding a hollow
central area. The bank may be kerbed on the inside, and sometimes on the
outside as well with small uprights or boulders. Excavation has revealed the
presence of pits, some containing cremation burials, within the central area.
Both round cairns and ring cairns provide important information on the
diversity of beliefs, burial practices and social organisation in the Bronze
Age.
These round cairns and ring cairn on the lower south eastern slope of Roughtor
have survived substantially intact despite some stone-robbing at one cairn and
minor hollows from antiquarian investigations. They display a good range of
original features, including their overall linear arrangement, round cairns
with variously inner and outer kerbing and incorporation of a ring cairn into
the closely spaced line of round cairns. The diversity of cairn types and
structures and the proximity of this group to other broadly contemporary
ritual, funerary and settlement sites demonstrate the nature and variety of
ritual and funerary practices and their relationship to farming practices
during the Bronze Age.
Details
The monument includes five closely spaced small prehistoric round cairns and
one ring cairn, forming the NNE sector of a linear group of cairns situated
on the lower south eastern slope of Roughtor in the upper valley of the De
Lank River on north west Bodmin Moor.
The six cairns which comprise this monument are arranged on an almost straight
NNE-SSW alignment over 63m, spaced 5m-6.5m apart, except for one 0.5m gap
separating two cairns.
The round cairn at the NNE end of the group survives with a circular mound of
heaped rubble and boulders 5.5m in diameter and up to 0.5m high. Relatively
recent stone-robbing has removed the upper portion of the mound, above 0.5m
high, revealing the northern sector of an inner kerb of edge-set slabs, 1m
within the mound's perimeter, leaning inwards on the rubble and boulder
interior. This cairn is separated by a gap of 5.75m from the second round
cairn of the group which survives as an ovoid mound of heaped rubble 0.9m high
and measuring 6m north-south by 5.5m east-west. An unrecorded antiquarian
excavation has produced a central hollow 2m long north-south by 1m wide and
0.2m deep. The ring cairn is the next in the line, 6.5m to the SSW, surviving
as an oval bank of heaped rubble and boulders up to 0.7m high and measuring
externally 12m north-south by 9m east-west. The bank is up to 2m wide with
several inward-leaning edge-set slabs surviving from an inner kerb along the
west side. Traces of consolidated rubble around a ground-fast boulder
slightly north of the cairn's centre are considered to derive from a central
mound. The third round cairn of the group is situated 0.5m beyond the ring
cairn's southern perimeter and survives with a circular heaped rubble mound,
4.5m in diameter and 0.6m high, with spaced slabs, up to 0.5m long, forming a
kerb around the periphery. Unrecorded antiquarian excavation has produced a
slight circular hollow, 0.75m in diameter and 0.1m deep, at the centre. The
next round cairn is situated 5m to the south west, surviving as a circular
heaped rubble mound, 4.5m in diameter and 0.5m high, from which a natural
ground-fast boulder, 0.5m high, projects a further 1m in the south. The
rubble mound has a slight antiquarian excavation hollow, 1m in diameter and
0.1m deep, located slightly west of centre. The SSW round cairn in the close-
spaced part of the cairn group included in this scheduling is situated a
further 6m to the SSW. It survives with an oval mound of heaped rubble, 0.3m
high and measuring 5.5m NE-SW by 3.5m NW-SE, also with a slight antiquarian
excavation hollow, 1m in diameter and 0.1m deep, at its south eastern end.
These cairns form the NNE sector of a linear group of nine broadly
contemporary small cairns arranged on an almost straight NNE-SSW alignment and
extending beyond the monument for a further 215m along a slight crest in the
valley side, c.150m west of the De Lank River. The other three cairns beyond
this monument also include a second ring cairn. The linear cairn group is
located near other broadly contemporary settlement sites, field systems,
funerary and ritual monuments on the slopes of Roughtor.
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.
