Kerbed platform cairn with kerbed central mound and outer bank 600m east of Trewalla 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. Platform cairns are funerary monuments covering single or multiple burials and dating to the Early Bronze Age (c.2000-1600 BC). They were constructed as low flat-topped mounds of stone rubble up to 40m in external diameter. Some examples have other features, including peripheral banks and internal mounds, constructed on this platform. A kerb of edge-set stones sometimes bounds the edges of the platform, bank or mound, or all three. Platform cairns occur as isolated monuments, in small groups, or in cairn cemeteries. In the latter instances they are normally found alongside cairns of other types. Although no precise figure is available, current evidence indicates that there are under 250 known examples of this monument class nationally. As a rare monument type exhibiting considerable variation in form, a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of preservation.

This platform cairn on Craddock Moor survives substantially intact, affected only by a limited archaeological excavation of known extent. Its importance is further enhanced by its excellent range of visible features, by its unusual valley floor situation and by its association with the many other different but broadly contemporary classes of funerary, ceremonial and settlement monuments on Craddock Moor, demonstrating well both the diversity of burial practices during the Bronze Age and the Prehistoric organisation of land use on this part of Bodmin Moor.

Details

The monument comprises a well-preserved banked and kerbed platform cairn with a central kerbed mound near the south-east edge of Craddock Moor on south-east Bodmin Moor. The cairn, also known as the Wallabarrow, survives with an outer bank of heaped earth and stone rubble, l0m in external diameter, 1m wide and up to 0.5m high on the north side but 0.2m high elsewhere, visible around all sides except the SE. Within the bank is a small circular platform, 6m in diameter and 0.3m high, composed of heaped small stones, largely turf-covered, and defined by a contiguous line of end-and edge-set small slabs and boulders forming the kerb around its perimeter, visible on all sides except the north and east sectors; the kerb's north sector is masked by an enlargement of the outer bank. The platform has a central mound, 4m diameter and 1.25m above the external ground surface, of heaped small and medium-sized stones, up to 0.5m across, and retained by a kerb of upright end-and edge-set slabs. This cairn has been surveyed on several occasions since 1907 and was subject to a limited excavation in 1938, the trenches of which produced three shallow hollows still visible on the east side, 0.75m wide, and on the NNE and west sides, each 0.5m wide, running radially from the cairn's outer edge to the central mound's kerb. This cairn lies on the lower SE-facing slope of a shallow valley and is situated on the south edge of an extensive area of funerary and ceremonial monuments typical of the early and middle Bronze Age (c.2000 - 1000 BC) on the Craddock and Rillaton Moors. It is adjacent to Prehistoric settlement remains bordering the fields of Trewalla Farm to the west.

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:

15054

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Sharpe, A, The Minions Area Archaeological Survey and Management (Volume 2), (1989), 293-6

Other
CAU/RCHME, The Bodmin Moor Survey, Unpubl. draft text. Ch.4, 1.3, fig 17
consulted 1992, Carter, A. RCHME, 1:2500 AP plot and field trace for SX 2571,
Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1405,

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.