Details

The monument includes two large platform cairns, the eastern cairn having an
off-centred mound, the western cairn embanked with a small central mound. The
monument is situated on a ridge-top near the centre of Craddock Moor on
south-east Bodmin Moor.
These platform cairns are centred 36m apart on an ENE-WSW axis. The smaller
eastern cairn survives with a circular, steep-sided platform, 15.5m diameter
across its base and up to 0.5m high, composed of heaped small to medium stones
and earth, with a continuous row of small boulders, up to 0.5m across, forming
a kerb around the edge of its 13.5m diameter flat upper surface. The platform
supports a flat-topped mound, 9.5m diameter, rising 1.25m above the platform
surface, and similarly composed of heaped stones and earth. The mound is
located towards the west side of the platform, touching the platform edge at
the west side but leaving a 2m wide periphery at the east. The western cairn
has a platform 18.5m diameter and up to 0.3m high, its periphery defined by a
bank 3m wide and up to 0.75m high, of heaped stone rubble. The bank has
boulders from an outer kerb protruding through the vegetation in several
places and, in the western sector, continuous lines of boulders survive intact
from both outer and inner kerbs giving an original bank-width there of 1.75m.
This cairn has a central mound, also of heaped stones, 7m in diameter and
rising a further 0.75m above the platform surface. Both cairns are
substantially intact, showing little evidence for any previous disturbance.
This is an isolated pair of cairns situated on the top of a prominent ridge
near the centre of an extensive area of funerary and ceremonial monuments
typical of the early and middle Bronze Age (c.2000 - 1000 BC) on the Craddock
and Rillaton Moors.

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. 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.

These platform cairns on Craddock Moor are well-preserved, with their features
clearly visible and they have not been archaeologically excavated. The
cairns' importance is further enhanced by their location within a wider
grouping of differing but broadly contemporary classes of funerary and
ceremonial monuments on Craddock Moor, demonstrating well both the diversity
and the organisation of burial practice and ritual during the Bronze Age.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Ashbee, P, 'Proc. West Cornwall field Club' in Recent Work In The Cornish Bronze Age, , Vol. 1(4), (1955), 129-135
Other
CAU/RCHME, The Bodmin Moor Survey, Unpubl. draft text. Ch.4, 1.3, fig 17
Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1235.01,
Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1235.02,

Source: Historic England