Details

This monument includes a platform cairn situated on the northern edge of
Raddick Hill plateau overlooking the valley of the Hart Tor Brook. The cairn
mound measures 12m in diameter and stands up to 1.2m high. A hollow in the
centre of the mound is probably the result of a partial excavation in 1898 by
the Dartmoor Exploration Committee. This work revealed a previously robbed
cist containing a small piece of corroded bronze. The cist with a surviving
capstone on the east side is orientated ESE to WNW and measures 0.7m long.
Two small mounds on the northern and southern edges of the cairn have been
identified as possible satellite cairns.

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

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.

Despite evidence of partial excavation, the platform cairn 60m north of
Raddick Hilll summit, survives comparatively well and contains archaeological
and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which
it was constructed. This cairn forms an important constituent part of a
diverse group of monuments including contemporary settlements, field systems
and other funerary sites.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Burnard, R, 'Devonshire Association Transactions' in Eighteenth Report of the Barrow Committee, (1899), 98
Burnard, R, 'Devonshire Association Transactions' in Eighteenth Report of the Barrow Committee, (1899), 98
Grinsell, L V, 'Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings' in Dartmoor Barrows, , Vol. 36, (1978), 174
Other
Devon County Sites and Monuments Register, SX57SE73,
National Archaeological Record, SX57SE22,

Source: Historic England