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.
Earlier Prehistoric hillforts are large fortified settlement sites dating to
the Neolithic period (c.3500 - 2000 BC). They may be recognised by single or
multiple stone-rubble walls or earthen banks enclosing all or part of a
hilltop. The boundaries often vary in size, incorporate numerous small
entrance gaps and commonly include substantial natural rock outcrops and
scarps in their circuit. Ditches, sometimes also with intermittent breaks,
occasionally accompany the enclosing banks. The hillfort enclosures, up to
10 hectares in extent, usually contain cleared and levelled house platforms,
funerary cairns and occasional stone hut circles. The few recent excavations
on this class of monument have revealed numerous internal timber and
stake-built structures and pits associated with large quantities of
undisturbed Neolithic settlement debris including animal bone, charcoal, flint
artefacts, pottery and stone tools. Many of these finds or their raw
materials were originally brought to the hillforts from considerable distances
away and excavations have also produced evidence for warfare at some sites.
Extensive outworks are associated with most of these hillforts, either roughly
concentric or connecting a series of related enclosures. Under twenty Earlier
Prehistoric hillforts are known nationally, concentrated in the uplands of
south-western England from the Cotswolds and Dorset to west Cornwall, with a
very few isolated examples elsewhere in S England. They are a very rare
monument type, highly representative of their period as one of the major
sources of information on social organisation and interaction during the
Neolithic. Consequently all Earlier Prehistoric hillforts that are not
extensively damaged will be of national importance. Their hilltop locations
frequently also form the sites of various types of cairn, funerary and
ceremonial monuments dating to the Bronze Age (c.2000 - 700 BC)
Round cairns were constructed as mounds of earth and stone rubble, up to 40m
diameter, sometimes bounded by a kerb of edge-set stones. Burials were placed
in small pits or occasionally within a stone box-like structure called a cist,
let into the old ground surface or dug into the body of the cairn. Tor cairns
display a more clearly ceremonial aspect, constructed as a ring bank of stone
rubble, up to 35m in external diameter and roughly concentric around a natural
rock outcrop or tor. In some cases a kerb of edge-set stones bounds the inner
edge of the bank. The area between the bank and the outcrop was sometimes
infilled by laying down a platform of stone rubble or turves. Excavated
examples have revealed post-holes and pits within the area defined by the ring
bank, some containing burial evidence, and scatters of Bronze Age artefacts
concentrated around the central tor. Tor cairns are very rare nationally with
only 40-50 known examples, concentrated on the higher moors of Devon and
Cornwall. Both round and tor cairns provide important information on the
diversity of beliefs, burial practices and social organisation during the
Bronze Age and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered
worthy of preservation.
The Earlier Prehistoric hill fort and adjacent cairns on Tregarrick Tor have
survived well and have not been excavated. Only minor and very limited
disturbance is evident, from the construction of a small shelter in the round
cairn and the natural slippage of the stack into the tor cairn's platform.
The proximity of the monument to a major Prehistoric ritual area and to
broadly contemporary settlement sites and field systems demonstrates well the
developing pattern of land use and the diversity of ritual practices during
the Neolithic and Bronze Ages.
Details
The monument includes a small earlier Prehistoric hillfort containing
numerous house platforms, with a round cairn and tor cairn adjacent to its
western edge. The round cairn incorporates a recent shelter. The monument is
situated on the summit of Tregarrick Tor on SE Bodmin Moor and is located near
extensive Prehistoric settlement sites on the Tor's lower slopes and close to
a major area of Bronze Age ritual monuments on Craddock Moor on SE Bodmin
Moor.
The hillfort is largely defined by an enclosure wall of heaped stone rubble
which exhibits occasional edge- and end-set stones, called orthostats,
especially in its NE sector. The wall survives up to 2m wide and 1m high, but
varies considerably in height and width along its course. It encloses almost
the entire perimeter of an ovoid 0.5 hectare area measuring 95m NE-SW by 82m
NW-SE, encompassing the summit outcrops and surrounding plateau of Tregarrick
Tor. Small gaps in the enclosure wall occur at its southern and north-eastern
sides, marking probable entrance sites, but the wall's only major break is
located in the northern half of the hillfort's north-west side, which is there
defined by the craggy northern face of the Tor's main granite outcrop and by
the outer limits of the cluster of house platforms to its north-east. The
wall veers at several points to incorporate earth-fast boulders and small rock
outcrops in its course. The interior of the hillfort contains over 35 small
sub-circular areas ranging from 3m to 7m in diameter, cleared of stone and
levelled where situated on a slope, forming platforms for Prehistoric timber
round houses and associated structures. The house platforms form two dense
clusters, one in the north-eastern third of the interior and the other in its
central southern sector. A boulder wall, of similar size and partly-
orthostatic construction to the enclosure wall, extends for 125m NE from the
SE side of the enclosure, forming a broadly contemporary outwork from the
hillfort. This outwork follows the crest separating the fairly level saddle
between Tregarrick Tor and Craddock Moor from the long steep slope to the SE.
The round cairn survives as two almost semi-circular mounds of stone rubble
heaped against the western and north-eastern faces of the major granite
outcrop on the summit of Tregarrick Tor. The two parts of the cairn are
separated by a narrow rock ridge which drops steeply to the foot of the tor
from the NW side of the outcrop. The western part of the cairn's mound
measures 16m NNW-SSE along the face of the outcrop and extends 7m from it,
rising to a maximum height of 1.75m. The cairn overlies the natural boulder
spread extending west from the tor and several large ground-fast boulders
project from its mound rubble. The cairn's perimeter is well-defined by the
change from its mound's consolidated rounded stone content, up to 0.4m
across, to the angular and ill-sorted rubble, with large crevices and gaps,
which has eroded naturally from the tor. The course of the hillfort's
enclosure wall runs up to the SW edge of the cairn's mound. A hollow, 0.75m
deep and typical of medieval and later herdsman's shelters, has been created
near the northern end of this mound. It occupies the 3m wide space between
two projecting boulders and extends 2m from the tor face. The shelter's
western side has been reinforced by a very rough cobble wall, 0.5m high, built
between the two boulders. The north-eastern part of the mound has a similar
composition and situation relative to the outcrop's natural erosion features.
It measures 11m NW-SE along the outcrop's face and extends for 6.5m from it,
rising 1.75m high. The upper surface of this mound's rubble forms a level
platform, 1m wide, against the rock face.
The tor cairn is constructed around the northern end of a small subsidiary
outcrop projecting 3m high from the SW edge of the summit plateau of
Tregarrick Tor. The cairn survives as an approximately semi-circular bank of
heaped stone rubble concentric about the western, downslope, side of a natural
stack of rounded granite slabs forming the outcrop's NW tip. The rubble bank
is up to 6m wide, 1.5m high, has a diameter of 18m NNW-SSE and extends to 10m
downslope from the stack. The southern end of the bank terminates against the
vertical face of the outcrop. To the north it ends on a slight north-south
scarp along which runs the hillfort's enclosure wall on the SW edge of the
summit plateau. The inner edge of the bank, west of the stack, has two groups
of contiguous orthostatic slabs, up to 1.8m long and 1.25m wide. The northern
group, of five slabs, is concentric with the bank's edge and leans markedly
towards the stack. The southern group, of three vertical slabs, is arranged
radially across the bank's inner edge and is separated by a gap of 3.5m from
the northern group. Between the bank's inner edge and the face of outcrop
with its stack is a level turf-covered platform, 3.5m - 5m wide and noticeably
free of surface rubble. The only disturbance evident at this cairn is the
natural collapse of two of the stack's slabs into the eastern edge of the
cairn's inner platform.
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.
