Details

The monument includes a round, situated on the east-facing summit of a spur, overlooking the steep valley of a tributary to the River Tamar. The round survives as a roughly-circular enclosure defined by a rampart and largely buried outer ditch with a similarly defined annexe to the north west. The main enclosure measures approximately 65m in diameter internally. The rampart survives differentially, but reaches a width of up to 10m and an external height of 0.8m up to 2m to the north and west. To the south it has been incorporated into an existing field boundary. The annexe rampart has been partially fossilised within existing field banks, although to the north the rampart stands to a height of 1.7m above the accompanying ditch which is some 7m wide and 0.3m deep. Elsewhere it has been cut by farm buildings or is preserved as buried features.

The farm buildings and yard are excluded from the scheduling.

Sources: HER:-
PastScape Monument No:-437802

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Rounds are small embanked enclosures, one of a range of settlement types dating to between the later Iron Age and the early post-Roman period. Usually circular or oval, they have a single earth and rubble bank and an outer ditch, with one entrance breaking the circuit. Excavations have produced drystone supporting walls within the bank, paved or cobbled entrance ways, post built gate structures, and remains of timber, turf or stone built houses of oval or rectangular plan, often set around the inner edge of the enclosing bank. Other evidence includes hearths, drains, gullies, pits and rubbish middens. Evidence for industrial activities has been recovered from some sites, including small scale metal working and, among the domestic debris, items traded from distant sources. Some rounds are associated with secondary enclosures, either abutting the round as an annexe or forming an additional enclosure. Rounds are viewed primarily as agricultural settlements, the equivalents of farming hamlets. They were replaced by unenclosed settlement types by the 7th century AD. Over 750 rounds are recorded in the British Isles, occurring in areas bordering the Irish Seas, but confined in England to south west Devon and especially Cornwall, where many more examples may await discovery. Most recorded examples are sited on hillslopes and spurs. Rounds are important as one of the major sources of information on settlement and social organisation of the Iron Age and Roman periods in south west England. Despite reduction in the height of the ramparts through past cultivation and having been cut by farm buildings, the round at Berry Farm survives comparatively well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction, development, longevity, agricultural practices, social organisation, trade, domestic arrangements and overall landscape context.

Source: Historic England