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.
The prehistoric funerary remains on north eastern Smallacoombe Downs, 570m
north west of Smallacoombe Tor, survive well; despite evidence for some animal
burrowing and stone-robbing respectively at the two larger cairns, each
retains a substantial proportion of its fabric undisturbed and displays
clearly its form. The grouping of funerary remains in this scheduling is
highly unusual both in its diversity and in the nature of structural elements
represented, the cairnfield in particular is very rare in the contemporary
funerary context in Cornwall and is well outside the main foci of their
national distribution.
The smaller eastern cist and the larger cairn and cist are also unusual
representations of these uncommon funerary structures in the far south west.
The eastern cist is one of very few examples that shows no clear evidence for
antiquarian disturbance. In their wider context, these funerary remains
complement the extensive survival of multi-phase prehistoric settlement
remains nearby to provide valuable evidence for the organisation of settlement
and funerary activity among the early communities on the downs.
Details
The monument includes a group of prehistoric funerary remains dispersed
across the middle slope of the north eastern flank of Smallacoombe Downs on
south east Bodmin Moor. The group includes, on the east, a small box-like
funerary structure called a cist, set within a small mound; at the centre of
the group are two round cairns, one of which contains another cist, and at the
west of the group is a dense and well-defined scatter of small cairns which
together form a cairnfield. The scheduling is divided into three areas of
protection.
The funerary remains are spaced across 210m of Smallacoombe Downs' north
easterly midslope between about the 270m-275m contour level. The eastern
structure in the group is a small ovoid rubble mound, 2.6m long, north-south,
by 1.75m wide and rising up to 0.75m high from its downslope edge. Its edges
rise steeply to a flattened upper surface at whose northern end is a flat
slab, 0.75m long by 0.65m wide, with squared corners. This is the covering
slab of a cist whose east and west side-slabs are exposed beneath, where
vegetation has fallen away at the northern end of the mound. Both side-slabs
are leaning over to the east leaving a cavity beneath the covering slab. Their
bases and leaning lengths suggest an original cist width of about 0.5m and
height of 0.3m; the cavity over them extends 0.7m to an end-slab to the SSW.
Close to the north east of the exposed end of the cist is a large flat slab,
0.75m long by 0.6m wide, considered to be the cist's former northern end-slab
now fallen outwards.
From 100m WNW of that cist, the central funerary remains include two round
cairns 10m apart on a north east-south west axis. The north eastern cairn is
visible as a circular mound 4.5m in diameter, built out from the northerly
slope to rise up to 0.75m high from its downslope edge. On top of its domed
surface are exposed the side slabs and north west end-slab of a funerary cist,
its south east end masked by leafmould and its covering slab absent. The
slabs define a rectangular cist interior 0.4m wide, north east-south west;
its exposed north west-south east length is 0.75m and at the north west end an
animal burrow reveals the cist slabs extending 0.55m deep into the mound.
The cairn to the south west is visible as a mound 4m in diameter, with a domed
surface rising 0.8m high on its northern side. The northern quadrant of the
mound has been removed by stone-robbers, revealing a large boulder in the west
of the mound, exposed in the resulting robbing scarp.
From about 48m west of these cairns, the cairnfield extends over an area at
least 55m WNW-ESE by 50m NNE-SSW. Within that area the surface contains a
dense scatter of small rubble mounds, generally spaced 5m-10m apart and
commonly 1.5m diameter and 0.3m high, but in the range 1m-3m diameter and
0.1m-0.6m high. The cairns show no clear patterning within the area of the
cairnfield and most show no visible structural features apart from the rubble
mound; however several do have occasional edge-set slabs on their periphery
indicating part-kerbing and one has a large edge-set slab near the centre that
may derive from a former cist.
Beyond this scheduling, two further prehistoric cairns are situated at a
slightly higher level from 305m to the WNW, while most of the lower slopes
along this flank of Smallacoombe Downs are encompassed by extensive
prehistoric field systems with earlier phases of enclosures and settlement.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 5 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.
