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 western Craddock Moor has survived well, with only very
minor disturbance by stone robbers, and it will retain many of its original
features including burial deposits. Its proximity to other broadly
contemporary funerary, ritual and settlement sites demonstrates well the
nature of funerary practices and the organisation of land use during the
Bronze Age.
Details
The monument includes a prehistoric round cairn situated close to other
broadly contemporary funerary, ritual and settlement sites on western Craddock
Moor on south-eastern Bodmin Moor.
The round cairn survives with a largely turf-covered circular mound of heaped
rubble, 4m in diameter and up to 0.6m high. Relatively recent stone robbing
has produced a shallow hollow, 0.7m wide and 0.1m deep, across the centre of
the mound on a NNW-SSE axis, its spoil increasing the visible diameter of the
mound to 4.5m on the axis. Beyond this monument, nearby broadly contemporary
monuments include a group of cairns and a prehistoric ritual avenue located
90m to the ENE, another similar cairn 175m to the west, extensive prehistoric
field systems with hut circle settlements situated 210m to the north, and a
prehistoric stone alignment which passes 235m 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.