Prehistoric round cairn on Caradon Hill, 520m north west of Heather House

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 round cairn on Caradon Hill, 520m north west of Heather House, retains extensive survival of its original features despite the impact of post-medieval stone-robbers on its overall form. The original form of the cairn is still evident and large parts of the mound remain unexcavated around the central area. The present surface at the cairn centre lies above the surrounding ground surface, consequently the prehistoric ground surface and any features of the cairn let into that surface are expected to survive beneath most of the cairn's area, as will the environmental data it may contain. The cairn falls within the wider cairn group on Caradon Hill, demonstrating well the major role of landscape settings in prehistoric religious and funerary practices.

Details

The monument includes a prehistoric round cairn on the summit area of Caradon Hill, a prominent hill on the south east edge of Bodmin Moor. The cairn forms part of a large cairn group that extends south west from the hill's summit and along its main spur.

The cairn survives with a low rounded mound up to 18.8m in diameter and to 1m high. Parts of the mound's original surface show a formerly shallow-domed, almost flattened, profile however its present visible form has been affected by post-medieval quarrying for wall stone. That has lowered an area about 6m across at the centre of the mound though it remains above the ground level surrounding the cairn, with discarded rubble and soil heaped unevenly onto intact areas of the cairn's periphery; several hollows pass across that periphery to give access to the central quarried area.

This cairn is part of a wider group containing at least 19 prehistoric cairns of various forms extending south west from the hill's summit and along the spine and upper flanks of its main spur. The overall group subdivides into two sub-groups: the ten cairns across the hill's summit dome are relatively closely spaced on an overall alignment south west from the summit, while the nine cairns along the hill's south western spur are more widely spaced and scattered about a south westerly alignment shifted to the south east from that of the summit cairns. The cairn in this scheduling is located near the south west end of the cairns on the summit dome. The further cairns within the wider cairn group are the subject of separate schedulings.

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:

15583

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
Title: 1:10000 Ordnance Survey Map SX 27 SE Source Date: 2002 Author: Publisher: Surveyor:
CAU/RCHME, 1:2500 Bodmin Moor Survey AP plots & Field Traces SX 2670 & 2770, (1984)
CAU, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1409, (2002)
CAU, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1411, (2002)

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