Summary
A platform cairn, probably Bronze Age, situated 180m to the east of Wilmot's Pool.
Reasons for Designation
The platform cairn 180m east of Wilmot's Pool is scheduled for the following principal reasons:
* Potential: it will contribute to our understanding of the social organisation and burial practices of the county's Bronze Age population;
* Documentation: archaeological survey has considerably enhanced our understanding of the form and survival of the cairn;
* Group value: with both the barrow at Wilmot's Pool to the west and with other scheduled monuments which collectively provide evidence of a relict prehistoric landscape.
History
Round barrows and cairns on the Quantock Hills sometimes form mixed cemeteries which are concentrations of one or more round barrows in close proximity to two or more cairns. Cairns found on the Quantocks include ring cairns which are low, circular banks of stone defining a central space, sometimes with a mound in the centre, though often the central space is empty; and embanked platform cairns comprising low, circular platforms of stone or earth, topped with a low bank, and often with a central mound. Evidence from excavated ring cairns has suggested that their primary function was not usually burial, but that they enclosed an important area perhaps connected with the cremation of human remains.
Details
PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: a platform cairn, probably Bronze Age, situated on the western escarpment of the Quantock Hills, approximately 180m to the east of Wilmot's Pool and within a post-medieval field system.
Sources
Books and journals 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.
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