Round cairn 417m north-west of Showery Tor

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 the north-west slope of Showery Tor has survived well despite the limited and well-defined disturbance of stone robbers. Its proximity to other broadly contemporary funerary and settlement sites demonstrates well the nature of funerary practices during the Bronze Age and provides rare evidence for a major development in land-use organisation.

Details

The monument includes a prehistoric funerary round cairn situated near other broadly contemporary cairns, settlement sites and field systems on the north- western slope of the Showery Tor ridge on north-west Bodmin Moor. The round cairn survives as an ovoid mound of heaped rubble, measuring 6.5m east-west, down the hillslope, by 5.5m north-south, across the hillslope, and rising up to 0.8m high. Relatively recent stone-robbing has produced two small hollows, up to 2m in diameter and 0.1m deep, near the top of the mound and resulted in a low mound of rubble spoil, 1m wide and up to 0.1m high, extending for 2.75m from the south-east perimeter of the mound. This cairn is one of a dispersed and varied group of at least twelve broadly contemporary funerary cairns situated near and upon prehistoric field banks covering three hectares on the north-west slopes of Showery Tor. These cairns appear to post-date the partial dismantling of the field walls which occurred after a change in the prehistoric land use of the area. Beyond this monument, fragmentary traces of those dismantled field boundaries extend to 10m from this cairn on its western and southern sides, and survive more extensively, defining subrectangular field plots, from 35m to the north-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:

15209

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
consulted 10/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 3291,
consulted 10/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 3299.2,
consulted 10/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 3288.10,
consulted 10/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 3292,
consulted 10/1991, Carter, A./RCHME, 1:2500 AP transcription for SX 1481,
consulted 10/19991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 3299.1,
consulted 10/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 3288,

End of official list entry

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