Round cairn 15m SSE of Caradon Hill summit

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; a kerb of edge-set stones sometimes bounds the edges of the mound. Round cairns are sometimes associated with external ditches but none have been recorded with any examples on Bodmin Moor. 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 provide 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 Caradon Hill is reasonably well-preserved, has not been excavated and will retain many of its original features, including burial deposits. Its importance is enhanced by its 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 comprises a low, circular funerary cairn, part of a linear cairn group near the summit of Caradon Hill on SE Bodmin Moor. The cairn survives as a low circular mound, 15m diameter and up to 0.4m high, composed of heaped small stones. The cairn has been subject to some stone removal in the relatively recent past, modifying its original form by hollowing the central area within an undisturbed, turf-covered 2.5m wide periphery but leaving intact a consolidated stone cover overall. As a result of this stone cover, it is considered that sub-surface funerary deposits and the old land surface beneath this cairn will have survived undisturbed. A small stone-heap 4m diameter and 1m high on the SSW periphery of the cairn is clearly a mound of waste from the stone-robbing and not an original feature of the Prehistoric cairn. This cairn has been surveyed on several occasions since 1907 but has never been subject to any archaeological excavation. It lies almost at the summit of Caradon Hill, towards the NE end of a linear cairn group which extends to the SW along the 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)

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:

15041

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
Title: Ordnance Survey 6": 1 mile Map: Cornwall XXVIII NW Source Date: 1907 Author: Publisher: Surveyor:
AM 7 scheduling description and maplet for CO 541d, Consulted 3/1991
3/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1409.04 and .12,
Consulted 3/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1409.08,
Carter, A/RCHME, 1:2500 Air Photo Transcripton: SX 2770,
Consulted 3/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1409.10,

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