Round cairn 840m SE of Trewalla 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. 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 small round cairn on southern Craddock Moor has survived reasonably well, despite the limited actions of stone robbers, and will retain many of its original features including burial deposits. Its proximity to other broadly contemporary settlement and funerary sites and to a medieval field system demonstrates well the nature of land use during the Prehistoric period and its subsequent development.

Details

The monument includes a small Prehistoric round cairn, situated near other broadly contemporary cairns and hut circles and amid an area of medieval cultivation ridges, on the western slope of the southern spur of Craddock Moor on SE Bodmin Moor. The cairn survives as a circular mound of heaped rubble, 4.5m in diameter and 0.5m high, largely turf-covered. Relatively recent stone-robbing has produced a slight hollow, 1m in diameter and 0.1m deep, at the centre of the mound.

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:

15170

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
consulted 1/1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1446.03,
Consulted 7/1991, Carter, A./RCHME, 1:2500 AP transcriptions for SX 2470 & SX 2471,
consulted 1/1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1443,
Consulted 1/1992, Carter, A/RCHME, 1:2500 AP transcription for SX 2570,
consulted 1/1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1446,

End of official list entry

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