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. Platform cairns are funerary monuments covering single or
multiple burials and dating to the Early Bronze Age (c.2000-1600 BC). They
were constructed as low flat-topped mounds of stone rubble up to 40m in
external diameter. Some examples have other features, including peripheral
banks and internal mounds, constructed on this platform. A kerb of edge-set
stones sometimes bounds the edges of the platform, bank or mound, or all
three. Platform cairns occur as isolated monuments, in small groups, or in
cairn cemeteries. In the latter instances they are normally found alongside
cairns of other types. Although no precise figure is available, current
evidence indicates that there are under 250 known examples of this monument
class nationally. As a rare monument type exhibiting considerable variation in
form, a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of
preservation.
This platform cairn on Craddock Moor has survived well with clearly visible
features and has remained undisturbed. The cairn's importance is further
enhanced by its location amid a wider grouping of differing but broadly
contemporary classes of funerary and ceremonial monuments on Craddock Moor,
demonstrating well both the diversity and the organisation of burial practice
and ritual during the Bronze Age.
Details
The monument comprises a small circular platform cairn with a central mound
and peripheral bank, at the south-west edge of Craddock Moor on south-east
Bodmin Moor.
The cairn survives as a small circular platform, 8m diameter and 0.2m high, on
which is a central mound, 4m diameter and rising a further 0.3m from the
platform, and a peripheral bank, 1-1.5m wide and 0.2m above the platform
level. The whole cairn consists of heaped stone rubble but is almost entirely
turf-covered, showing no evidence for previous disturbance. It was surveyed
and recorded in 1978 and 1984 but has not been archaeologically excavated. It
is an isolated cairn located in a slight saddle between the main plateau of
Craddock Moor to the NE and Tregarrick Tor to the SW, and is situated at the
SW edge of an extensive area of funerary and ceremonial monuments typical of
the early and middle Bronze Age (c.2000 - 1000 BC) in the Craddock and
Rillaton Moors.
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.
