Platform cairn 690m south-east of Carkeet 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 the Carkeet Downs has survived reasonably well despite some limited disturbance by recent stone-robbing from the surface of the central mound and the modern hedgebank which clips the platform's extreme eastern periphery. Most of the cairn's platform, internal deposits and its extensive buried land surface will survive substantially intact. The proximity of this monument to the other cairns on the summit of the Downs and its relationship with the various hilltop cairns of differing forms bordering the Fowey valley demonstrates well the nature and diversity of funerary practices during the Bronze Age.

Details

The monument includes a prehistoric platform 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 platform cairn survives with a circular raised platform of turf-covered heaped rubble, 22m in diameter and up to 0.4m high. The surface of the platform bears various irregular hollows up to 0.2m deep due to relatively recent stone-robbing for a modern ditched hedgebank which runs NNE-SSW across the extreme eastern periphery of the cairn's platform. This monument is situated near two other broadly contemporary cairns located 28m to the SSW and 130m to the south-east 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 c.600m south of a round cairn on the next ridge to the north and c.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:

15251

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
consulted 1993, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1258.1,
consulted 1993, Carter, A./Fletcher, M.J./RCHME, 1:2500 AP plot and field trace for SX 2272,

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.