Standing stone and cairn 490m south of The Old Lighthouse, Lundy

Reasons for Designation

Lundy is a small,steep sided island in the Bristol Channel,16m north of Hartland Point,north Devon.Aligned north-south,it is 6km long by 1km wide and supports a predominately moorland vegetation.The 100m high cliffs and tabular form give it a striking appearance,visible in clear weather from parts of south west England and south Wales.Lundy's remoteness and(until the 19th century construction of the Beach Road) its inaccessibility,combined with a lack of shelter and cultivable soils,has meant that it has escaped more recent occupation or development.It therefore preserves a remarkable variety of archaeological sites from early prehistory(c.8000 BC)onwards,representing evidence for habitation,fortification,farming and industry.There are also archaeological remains in the waters surrounding the island-over 150 shipwrecks are already recorded.Most of the island's archaeology is well documented from detailed survey in the 1980s and 1990s.Standing stones are prehistoric ritual or ceremonial monuments with dates ranging from the late Neolithic period to the end of the Bronze Age.They are often(as on Lundy)conspicuously sited and close to other contemporary monument classes;many,for example,are found on the edge of round cairns and barrows.Nine standing stones are recorded on Lundy,all believed to be still in their original positions and constituting an important group.Their survival in an environment virtually unchanged from prehistoric times means that they can be clearly seen in terms of the topographic setting in which they were constructed. A study of this group of stones concluded that,together,they represent evidence of a solar calendar.Round cairns are burial mounds found typically on upland moors in south west England and Wales.They are often mounds of earth and small stones and may cover one or more burials.They are generally dated to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC).The standing stone is older than the cairn and probably attracted the sitting of a burial mound through its powerful associations with the past.The stone and its associated cairn survive well despite investigation of the cairn's central burial.The stone,the adjacent cairn and the archaeologically sensitive area between them will provide evidence for the construction,use and later reuse of the monument,and the environmental conditions prevalent at the time.

Details

The monument includes a standing stone set on a small crescent-shaped bank,and a cairn immediately to its north.The stone is upright and measures 0.65m high,1.2m wide and 0.4m thick.It is oriented north west to south east.The base of the stone lies buried in the cairn and so it cannot be determined whether it was originally earthfast or packed into position like most of the standing stones on Lundy.The stone is one of a group of nine recorded across the southern part of the island.The cairn is 0.3m high and 5m wide.A hollow in the centre of the mound suggests that it has been explored by antiquarians although there is no record of this excavation.It would seem that the burial cairn was sited so as to be close to an already ancient standing 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:

27622

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Farrah, R W E, The Megalithic Astronomy of Lundy, (1991), 58

End of official list entry

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