Platform cairn on Wingletang Down, 25m south of Sun Rock

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. Platform cairns are funerary monuments of Early Bronze Age date (c.2000-1600 BC). They were constructed as low flat-topped mounds of stone rubble, up to 40m in external diameter though usually considerably smaller, covering single or multiple burials. Some examples have other features, including peripheral banks and internal mounds constructed on the platform. A kerb of slabs or edge-set stones sometimes bounds the edge of the platform, and a peripheral bank or mound if present. Platform cairns can occur as isolated monuments, in small groups or in cairn cemeteries. In cemeteries they are normally found alongside cairns of other types. Platform cairns form a significant proportion of the 387 surviving cairns on the Isles of Scilly; this is unusual in comparison with the mainland. All surviving examples on the Isles of Scilly are considered worthy of protection.

This platform cairn on Wingletang Down has survived well. The incorporation of natural outcrops into the mound is a distinctive feature found in certain other cairns on the Isles of Scilly but unusual and rare nationally. The presence of this cairn in a dispersed group containing various other classes of cairn shows the diversity of funerary activity during the Bronze Age. The relationships between this cairn group, the nearby prehistoric field systems and the topography on St Agnes demonstrate well the nature of land use among prehistoric communities and the organisation of funerary and farming activities.

Details

The monument includes a prehistoric platform cairn incorporating a large natural outcrop and situated near the north east edge of Wingletang Down on St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly. The platform cairn survives with a circular mound of heaped rubble, 7m in diameter and 0.35m high. The southern side of the mound incorporates a large natural granite outcrop measuring 3.5m north west to south east by 2m north east to south west, forming a rounded ridge rising 0.8m high. This cairn forms part of a group containing at least 44 cairns of various types dispersed about the heathland and abundant granite outcrops of Wingletang Down, the broad southern peninsula of St Agnes. Prehistoric field systems border the northern edges of the Down, partly incorporating several cairns towards the north east edge of this cairn group. Another large and diverse cairn group occupies the southern part of Gugh, 450m north east of Wingletang Down.

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:

15338

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Russell, V, Isles of Scilly Survey, (1980)

Other
Title: 1:2500 Ordnance Survey Map; SV 8807 Source Date: 1980 Author: Publisher: Surveyor:
Morley, B. & Rees, S., AM7 scheduling documentation for CO 1014, 1975, consulted 1993
consulted 1993, Waters, A., AM 107 for Cornwall SMR entry PRN 7016.19, (1988)
consulted 1993, Waters, A., AM 107s for Cornwall SMR entries PRN 7011; 7015; 7016; 7018, (1988)
consulted 1993, Waters, A., AM 107s for Cornwall SMR entries PRN 7020; 7056; 7057; 7059, (1988)
consulted 1993, Waters, A., AM 107s for Cornwall SMR entries PRN 7010; 7013; 7019, (1988)

End of official list entry

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