Details

The monument comprises an upright standing stone set in a slight cairn and
situated near Prehistoric field systems on the western slope of Tregarrick Tor
on SE Bodmin Moor.
The standing stone survives as an end-set granite slab, 1.3m high and 0.6m by
0.4m at its base. The stone tapers slightly to the upper end which leans
slightly west of vertical. Its surfaces are fracture-faces and are not
deliberately dressed. Stock trampling around its base,has revealed a dense
cluster of small packing-stones extending 0.25m from the stone's base. The
trampling has produced a shallow hollow, 1m wide, around the stone beyond
which is a very slight turf-covered mound with occasional small stone rubble
visible in its surface, forming a low cairn rising 0.15m high and extending up
to 2.5m from the base of the standing stone.

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.

Standing stones are ceremonial monuments dating from the late Neolithic and
Bronze Age (c2500 - 750 BC). They comprise single or paired upright slabs,
ranging in height from under 1m to over 6m where still erect. Standing stones
are often conspicuously sited and sometimes are located in or on the edge of
round barrows and cairns. Excavations have demonstrated sub-surface features
adjacent to standing stones, including stone funerary cists, spreads of small
pebbles and various pits and hollows filled in some cases with human bone,
cremations, charcoal and domestic artefacts. Similar deposits have been found
in excavated sockets for standing stones, which vary considerably in depth.
Standing stones may have functioned as markers for routeways, territorial
boundaries, graves and meeting points, but their adjacent features show that
they also bore a ritual function, forming one of several known ritual monument
classes of their period. Estimates suggest about 250 standing stones are
known nationally, of which the 16 examples surviving on Bodmin Moor form an
important sub-group. They are a long-lived class of monument, highly
representative of their period and all examples except those which are
extensively damaged are considered to be of national importance.

The standing stone on Tregarrick Tor has survived well, without excavation,
and shows evidence for the survival of accompanying features around its base.
Its proximity to broadly contemporary field systems and to a major area of
ritual monuments on Craddock Moor demonstrates well the organisation of land
use and the diversity of ritual practices during the later Neolithic and
Bronze Age.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Barnatt, J, Prehistoric Cornwall: The Ceremonial Monuments, (1982), 97, 236
Other
7/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1243 & 1251,
7/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1246,
7/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1361, 1277 & 1278,
Consulted 7/1991, Carter, A./RCHME, 1:2500 AP transcriptions for SX 2371 & SX 2471 (Cons. 7/1991),
Consulted 7/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1284,

Source: Historic England