Reasons for Designation
Bodmin Moor, the largest of the Cornish granite uplands, has long been
recognised to have exceptional preservation of archaeological remains. The
quality and diversity of the evidence is such that the moor has been the
subject of detailed archaeological survey and hence it forms one of the best
recorded upland landscapes in England. Of particular note are the extensive
relict landscapes of Prehistoric, medieval and post-medieval date. Together
these 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 dating to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC),
covering single or multiple burials. They were constructed as mounds of earth
and stone rubble, up to 40m in external diameter, but usually considerably
smaller. Many variations in form are known, including types with outer banks,
ditches, platforms or associated stone circles and rows; a kerb of edge-set
stones sometimes bounds the edges of the mound, platform or bank, however the
features of such subdivisions are often masked beneath rubble from weathering
or recent disturbance. Burials were placed in small pits, sometimes containing
a box-like structure of stone slabs called a cist, let into the old ground
surface, or in the body of the cairn itself. Round cairns can occur as
isolated monuments, in small groups or in cairn cemeteries. Often occupying
prominent locations, they are a major visual element in the modern landscape.
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. These round cairns on Caradon
Hill are reasonably well-preserved, have not been excavated and will retain
original funerary deposits; the southernmost cairn displays a particularly
good range of surviving original features. Their importance is enhanced by
their location within a cairn group which contains a variety of different
types of burial monument, demonstrating well the diversity of burial practice
during the Bronze Age.
Details
The monument includes a large round cairn and an embanked platform cairn with
a central mound, centred 42m apart on a N-S axis, part of a linear cairn group
on the summit dome of Caradon Hill on SE Bodmin Moor.
The northern cairn survives as a circular turf-covered mound, 26m diameter and
up to 1m high, comprising heaped small stones with occasional larger boulders
visible; the N and W perimeters of the cairn are particularly well-defined. In
the interior, some relatively recent disturbance for stone-robbing is evident
as a shallow trench, 3m wide, running in from the SSW almost to the N edge,
together with several linear mounds and hollows parallel to it on each side.
This disturbance penetrates only to a limited depth within the cairn and it is
considered that sub-surface funerary deposits and extensive areas of the old
land surface will have survived intact beneath it. The southern cairn of the
pair has a central turf-covered mound, 13m diameter and 2m high, composed of
small to medium-sized stone. The mound has a hollowed upper surface, 5m in
diameter and 0.6m deep. The mound drops to the level of the platform, 0.5m
higher than the external ground level. On the periphery of the platform is the
outer bank, 22m in external diameter, 2-3m wide and 1.5m high, leaving a gap
1.5-2m wide to the central mound. No trace of the platform projects beyond the
bank. The bank has some gaps in its S sector due to recent stone robbing, but
this cairn shows no evidence of any major disturbance. Both of these cairns
have been surveyed on several occasions since 1907, but neither has been
subject to any recorded archaeological excavation. They lie near the centre of
a linear cairn group which extends on a NE-SW axis along the SW side of the
hill's summit and contains ten recorded cairns of several types typical of the
Early and Middle Bronze Age (c.2000 - 1000 BC)
The concrete-and-steel guy-anchorage for the nearby transmitter mast and the
dumped section of that mast are excluded from the scheduling but the land
beneath them is included.
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.
