Prehistoric clearance cairn 1.04km north-west of Wardbrook 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.

This cairn has survived reasonably well. Despite the limited disturbance evident from an early antiquarian exploration, the cairn will retain many of its original features. The integration of the cairnfield containing this cairn with an extensive Prehistoric field system and linear boundaries indicates their broad contemporaneity, demonstrating well the nature of agricultural practices and organisation of land use during the Bronze Age.

Details

The monument includes a large Prehistoric clearance cairn situated near a broadly contemporary field system, linear boundary and other clearance cairns on the lower western slope of the Langstone Downs on SE Bodmin Moor. The cairn survives as a circular turf-covered mound of heaped rubble, 7.5m in diameter. The mound's height is accentuated by its location on the crest of a natural depression in the lower slope. Consequently the mound rises 0.5m above the ground level to the NE, behind the depression, and 1.5m above the ground level to the SW, in the slope to the floor of the depression. A north-south hollow, 1m wide and up to 0.3m deep, runs across the top of the mound, resulting from an unrecorded early antiquarian exploration. The cairn is one of at least seventeen similarly large cairns forming a dispersed cairnfield among and adjoining the cleared plots of a Prehistoric field system. This cairn is situated 38m NE of another similar cairn and is 42m south of a major linear boundary which subdivides the field system.

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:

15138

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
Qualification consulted 9/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1264,
consulted 1993, Cornwall SMR entries: PRN 1263 & 1274 (part),
consulted 9/1991, Carter, A./RCHME, 1:2500 AP transcriptions for SX 2473 & SX 2474,

End of official list entry

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