Round cairn 617m ENE of Trewortha 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. 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. 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. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of preservation.

This round cairn on Twelve Men's Moor has survived well despite the limited and well-defined actions of stone-robbers and it will retain many original features including burial deposits. Its proximity to other earlier and broadly contemporary burial monuments of differing types and to Prehistoric field systems and settlement sites demonstrates well the development and diversity of funerary practices and the organisation of land use during the Earlier Prehistoric period.

Details

The monument comprises a Prehistoric round cairn, one of a scattered group of twelve cairns, situated near a Neolithic long cairn and other broadly contemporary cairns, field systems and settlement sites on the wide saddle of Twelve Men's Moor between Kilmar Tor and the Trewortha Tor-Hawkstor ridge on eastern Bodmin Moor. The cairn survives as a turf-covered mound of heaped rubble, 5m in diameter and up to 0.6m high, forming a steep inverted bowl shape. The cairn has a slightly flattened top bearing a shallow hollow, 1.2m in diameter and 0.2m deep, resulting from an early stone robbing episode. This cairn is centred 16m ENE and 27m SW of two similar small cairns, the nearest in its scattered group.

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:

15104

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Trahair, J E R, Cornish Archaeology in A survey of cairns on Bodmin Moor, Vol. 17, (1978), 3-24

Other
9/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1013.09,
consulted 9/1991, Carter, A./RCHME, 1:2500 AP transcription for SX 2475,
consulted 9/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1013,
consulted 9/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1013.12,

End of official list entry

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