Round cairn 435m south east of Sparretts 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 round cairn on Craddock Moor has survived well, without excavation or other internal disturbance. Its proximity to a variety of broadly contemporary settlement and funerary monuments demonstrates well the nature of burial practice and land use during the Bronze Age.

Details

The monument includes a small round cairn situated on the south west edge of Craddock Moor on Bodmin Moor. The cairn survives as a circular mound, 4.5m diameter and 1m high, of heaped earth and small stones, up to 0.25m across. The mound is well formed and undisturbed, although later earthwork features impinge directly on the margin of the cairn. The earliest of these is a medieval field boundary indicated by a slight heaped stone wall, 1m wide and 0.2m high, running west from the western edge of the cairn and forming part of a more extensive field system. Subsequently a medieval tin miners' water channel, called a leat, was dug immediately east of the cairn; the leat survives as a slight ditch, 1.5m wide and 0.2m deep, its low ridge of upcast deposited against its western edge over-riding the eastern edge of the cairn's mound. Only those parts of the medieval field boundary and the leat which occur within 2m of the cairn's outer perimeter are included in the scheduling. This cairn is one of several prehistoric monuments on this hillside, including another funerary cairn, hut circles, enclosures and small heaps of cleared stone.

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:

15075

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Sharpe, A, The Minions Area Archaeological Survey and Management (Volume 2), (1989)

Other
consulted 6/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1282,
consulted 6/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 14113,
Information told to MPP fieldworker by Peter Herring, CAU, (1993)
7/1991, Carter, A./RCHME, 1:2500 AP transcription for SX 2471,
consulted 6/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1356,

End of official list entry

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