Details

The monument includes a platform cairn, situated on the upper south west facing slopes of Hensbarrow Beacon, and between the extensive china clay works of Goonbarrow, Gunheath and Littlejohn's. The cairn survives as a low, flat-topped circular platform of stones and earth measuring approximately 22m in diameter with a peripheral rim bank on the platform of up to 0.5m high and 1.5m wide. There are three early excavation hollows in the centre, east and west of varying size. The cairn was first described by R Thomas in around 1850.

Sources: HER:-
PastScape Monument No:-430012

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

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 less than 250 known examples of this monument class nationally. Despite partial early excavation, the platform cairn 180m northwest of Hensbarrow Farm survives comparatively well. It will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction, longevity, territorial significance, social organisation, funerary and ritual practices and overall landscape context.

Source: Historic England