Details

Monument includes two small round cairns, part of a dispersed group of
cairns situated on Craddock Moor on south-east Bodmin Moor.
The two cairns in this monument are centred 10m apart on a NE-SW axis. The SW
cairn survives as a circular mound, 3.5m diameter and 0.5m high, composed of
small stones up to 0.2m across, densely consolidated in a peaty soil matrix.
The mound is largely turf-covered with no evidence for any previous
disturbance apart from some recent removal of turf from the NE side, exposing
the outer layer of the cairns stone content. The NE cairn also survives as a
circular mound, 6m diameter and rising to 1m high, composed of small to medium
sized stones, up to 0.4m across, beneath the mostly turf-covered surface. The
mound has relatively steep sides rising to a flatter, domed upper surface 4.5m
diameter. The edge of this upper surface is marked by an intermittent line of
larger stones projecting through the turf in most sectors of the cairn's
periphery, the visible remains of a kerb surrounding the cairn's mound. This
cairn has a slight hollow, 1m diameter and 0.2m deep, in its east side
resulting from a limited stone-robbing episode long since ceased as the hollow
is now thickly turf-covered. Both of these cairns have been surveyed but
neither has been archaeologically excavated. They form part of a dispersed
group of seventeen cairns close to a Prehistoric embanked avenue. The group
is situated in the floor of a broad valley near the NW edge of an extensive
area of funerary and ceremonial monuments typical of the early and middle
Bronze Age (c.2000 - 1000 BC) on 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.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

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.

These round cairns on Craddock Moor survive well and have not been
archaeologically excavated. The cairns' importance is further enhanced by
their situation within 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.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
CAU/RCHME, The Bodmin Moor Survey, Unpubl. draft text. Ch.4, 1.3, fig 17
Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1291.07,
Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1291.08,

Source: Historic England