Summary

Platform cairn with encircling kerb adjacent to a stone alignment on Shaugh Moor.

Source: Historic England

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 3 November 2015. The record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

The monument includes a platform cairn with encircling kerb situated on Shaugh Moor overlooking the Plym Valley. The platform cairn survives as a circular flat topped stony mound measuring up to 9m in diameter and 0.3m high. The mound is encircled by a kerb of 11 stones measuring up to 0.5m high.

Further archaeological remains survive within the vicinity of the monument, some are scheduled, but others are not currently protected and these are not included within the scheduling because they have not been formally assessed.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Dartmoor is the largest expanse of open moorland in southern Britain and, because of exceptional conditions of preservation, it is also one of the most complete examples of an upland relict landscape in the whole country. The great wealth and diversity of archaeological remains provide direct evidence for human exploitation of the Moor from the early prehistoric period onwards. The well-preserved and often visible relationship between settlement sites, major land boundaries, trackways, ceremonial and funerary monuments as well as later industrial remains, gives significant insights into successive changes in the pattern of land use through time. Platform cairns are funerary monuments covering single or multiple burials and dating to the Early Bronze Age (c.2000-1600 BC). They were constructed as low flat-topped mounds of stone rubble up to 40m in external diameter. Some examples have other features, including peripheral banks and internal mounds, constructed on this platform. A kerb of edge-set stones sometimes bounds the edges of the platform, bank or mound, or all three. Platform cairns occur as isolated monuments, in small groups, or in cairn cemeteries. In the latter instances they are normally found alongside cairns of other types. Although no precise figure is available, current evidence indicates that there are under 250 known examples of this monument class nationally. As a rare monument type exhibiting considerable variation in form, a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of preservation.

The platform cairn with encircling kerb on Shaugh Moor survives well and is closely associated with other ritual monuments in the immediate vicinity including a stone alignment and other cairns. There are also prehistoric settlements and a coaxial field system close by. The relationship between the platform cairn and stone alignment is significant and it will contain important archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction, use, longevity and landscape context.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Butler, J, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities, (1994)
Other
PastScape Monument No:- 439531

Source: Historic England