Banked cairn 950m west of Siblyback 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. Banked cairns are funerary monuments covering single or multiple burials and dating to the Early Bronze Age (c.2000-1600 BC). They comprise a circular bank of earth and stone rubble, up to 30m in external diameter and sometimes accompanied by an external ditch, surrounding a central mound of earth and rubble. A kerb of edge-set stones sometimes bounds the edges of the bank or mound or both. They occur as isolated monuments, in small groups or in larger cairn cemeteries. In the latter two instances they may occur either as groups comprising only banked cairns or, more usually, with cairns of other types. The burials, either inhumations or cremations, were placed in small pits, on occasion within box-like structures of stone slabs called cists, let into the old ground surface or placed within the body of the mound itself. Although no precise figure is available, current evidence indicates that there are under 250 known examples of banked cairns nationally. As a rare class exhibiting considerable variation in form, a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of preservation.

This banked cairn on the Carkeet Downs has survived well despite some limited disturbance from unrecorded recent stone-robbing restricted to the surface of the inner mound. The cairn's outer bank, much of its mound and internal deposits and its extensive buried land surface will survive substantially intact. The thick peat covering much of the monument will also preserve environmental deposits contemporary with and later than the cairn's construction and use. The proximity of this monument to the round cairns on the summit of the Downs and its relationship with the other hilltop cairns bordering the Fowey valley demonstrates well the nature and diversity of funerary practices during the Bronze Age.

Details

The monument includes a prehistoric funerary banked cairn situated near two other broadly contemporary cairns on the summit of the Carkeet Downs at the south-west edge of Siblyback Moor on south-east Bodmin Moor. The banked cairn survives with a small circular mound of heaped rubble, 7m in diameter and up to 0.3m high, largely turf-covered with a slightly irregular upper surface including hollows to 0.15m deep due to recent stone robbing. The mound is situated slightly north-east of the centre of the cairn's near- circular outer bank, also of turf-covered heaped rubble, with outer dimensions of 17.5m NE-SW by 18.5m NW-SE. In cross-section the bank is 1.75m-2m wide and up to 0.3m high above the thick peaty turf that covers much of the cairn's surface and the surrounding land. This monument is situated near two broadly contemporary platform cairns located 130m to the north-west and 125m to the WNW respectively on the broad summit of the Carkeet Downs. This group of three cairns forms part of a sequence of prehistoric funerary cairns, of various forms, located on successive ridge tops bordering the western side of the upper valley of the River Fowey. In this series, this monument is located 600m south of a round cairn on the next ridge to the north and 900m north of another cairn group on the next ridge to the south.

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:

15246

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
consulted 1993, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1258.3,
consulted 1993, Carter, A./Fletcher, M.J./RCHME, 1:2500 AP plot and field trace for SX 2272,

End of official list entry

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