Details

The monument includes a prehistoric funerary round cairn situated near the
western crest of a broad ridge occupied by Draynes Common on southern Bodmin
Moor.
The cairn survives with a turf-covered circular mound of heaped rubble, up to
9.5m in diameter and 1m high above the thick peat deposits which extend from
the edges of the cairn. Near the centre of the mound is a hollow, 2.5m in
diameter and 0.5m deep, resulting from an unrecorded antiquarian excavation.
Spoil from this excavation forms a slight ridge, up to 0.3m high and extending
up to 1.5m from the edges of the hollow on its south and west sides.
Beyond the monument, a broadly contemporary platform cairn is located on the
highest point of the ridge, 320m to the south-east, while prehistoric hut
circle settlements and field systems are situated on the lower slopes
bordering the ridge from 1km to the south-west and 1.1km to the north-east.

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.

This round cairn on Draynes Common has survived substantially intact despite
the evidence for an unrecorded antiquarian excavation near its centre. The
thick peat deposits around the monument will preserve evidence for the
environmental context during and after the cairn's construction and use. The
setting of this cairn with respect to the broadly contemporary settlement
sites and field systems bordering the Draynes Common ridge demonstrates well
the relationship of funerary practices with settlement and farming activities
among prehistoric communities.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
consulted 1993, Carter, A./Fletcher, M.J./RCHME, 1:2500 AP plot and field trace for SX 2170,
consulted 1993, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1360,

Source: Historic England