Reasons for Designation
The Isles of Scilly, the westernmost of the granite masses of south west
England, contain a remarkable abundance and variety of archaeological remains
from over 4000 years of human activity. The remote physical setting of the
islands, over 40km beyond the mainland in the approaches to the English
Channel, has lent a distinctive character to those remains, producing many
unusual features important for our broader understanding of the social
development of early communities.
Throughout the human occupation there has been a gradual submergence of the
islands' land area, providing a stimulus to change in the environment and its
exploitation. This process has produced evidence for responses to such change
against an independent time-scale, promoting integrated studies of
archaeological, environmental and linguistic aspects of the islands'
settlement.
The islands' archaeological remains demonstrate clearly the gradually
expanding size and range of contacts of their communities. By the post-
medieval period (from AD 1540), the islands occupied a nationally strategic
location, resulting in an important concentration of defensive works
reflecting the development of fortification methods and technology from the
mid 16th to the 20th centuries. An important and unusual range of post-
medieval monuments also reflects the islands' position as a formidable hazard
for the nation's shipping in the western approaches.
The exceptional preservation of the archaeological remains on the islands has
long been recognised, producing an unusually full and detailed body of
documentation, including several recent surveys.
Details
The monument includes a prehistoric kerbed boulder, a form of early ritual
monument highlighting a natural boulder, situated on the western coastal shelf
of the southernmost headland of St Agnes in the south west of the Isles of
Scilly.
The kerbed boulder has a large natural slab as its focus, subtriangular in
plan with a flattened upper surface up to 3m across. The slab rises to 0.5m
high at its north west edge, tilts down to the south east and is encircled by
a ring of smaller spaced slabs. Three of these are edge-set, standing from
0.25m-0.4m from the central slab's edge: two on the south, to 0.7m long and
0.25m high, and one on the NNE, 0.5m long and 0.2m high. Four other slabs,
0.6m-1m across, lie flat on the east, north and north west and are considered
to have fallen outwards. Another edge-set slab, 0.75m long and 0.25m high,
forms a small outlier whose long axis is aligned towards the monument's focal
slab 3m to the SSW.
This is one of at least two kerbed boulders on St Agnes; it is also located
within the area of a large prehistoric cairn cemetery which encompasses much
of Wingletang Down, the island's unenclosed southern heathland. Many of the
cemetery's cairns also incorporate natural boulders and outcrops as a
deliberate feature, including the nearest cairn centred only 12m to the south.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System number:
15528
Legacy System:
RSM
Sources
Other
Legal
This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
End of official list entry
