Details

The monument includes a prehistoric round funerary cairn situated on a broad
ridge at the south-west edge of Siblyback Moor on south-east Bodmin Moor.
The round cairn is visible as a turf-covered circular mound of heaped rubble,
8.75m in diameter and up to 0.6m high. Occasional stones project up to 0.1m
above the turf in the cairn's east, north and west sectors, forming remains of
an inner kerb measuring 3.75m in diameter. An unrecorded antiquarian
excavation has produced a shallow hollow, 3m in diameter and 0.1m deep, at the
cairn's centre.
This monument forms one of a sequence of prehistoric funerary cairns of
various forms, located on successive ridge tops bordering the western side of
the upper valley of the River Fowey. In this series, this monument is located
600m north of a cairn group on the ridge to the south and 1.5km north of
another cairn group on the next ridge further south.

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 NW of Siblyback Farm has survived well. Despite the limited
and well-defined disturbance from the antiquarian excavation, the cairn's
mound, internal deposits and buried land surface will survive substantially
intact.
The presence of the inner kerb is unusual and the relationship of this cairn
to those on successive ridges to the south, bordering the west side of the
Fowey valley, demonstrates well the nature and diversity of funerary practices
during the Bronze Age.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
consulted 1992, Carter, A./RCHME, 1:2500 AP plot and field trace for SX 2273,
consulted 1992, Carter, A./RCHME, 1:2500 AP plots and field traces for SX 2271; SX 2272; SX 2273,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1276,
Title: 1:25000 Ordnance Survey Map; SX 27/37; Pathfinder 1339
Source Date: 1988
Author:
Publisher:
Surveyor:

Source: Historic England