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.
Details
The monument comprises a small circular platform cairn with a central mound,
near the centre of Craddock Moor on south-east Bodmin Moor.
The cairn survives with a small circular mound, 5m diameter and 0.75m high, of
heaped small to medium sized stone rubble, set centrally within a low
platform, 10m in diameter and up to 0.3m high at the SSE side, also composed
of heaped stone rubble. Some relatively recent stone extraction has produced
a shallow trough NW-SE across the mound, 1m wide and 0.5m deep. The form of
this cairn is generally well-preserved, with only minor disturbance evident
from the shallow trough in the upper surface. It was surveyed and recorded in
1984 but has not been archaeologically excavated. It is one of three similar
cairns dispersed about a NW-facing hillside near the centre of Craddock Moor
amid 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.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System number:
15059
Legacy System:
RSM
Sources
Other
Legal
This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
End of official list entry
