Details

The monument includes a stone-built cist lying in the depression formed by a
19th century excavation. Surrounding stonework suggests that it is the remains
of a chambered tomb.
The excavation revealed a block of granite 0.47m thick resting on two upright
slabs enclosing a chamber about 1.8m wide and 1.8m deep. This slab appears to
have been moved to the north to expose the interior. It still lies in this
position with the interior of the cist open, although now partly filled with
soil and vegetation. A fragment of pottery, now lost, was found in the cavity
but no other dating evidence remains.
Although the chamber has been exposed, other details of the original
construction including buried features such as pits, secondary burials and the
remains of the covering cairn will survive.

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

Lundy is a small, steep sided island in the Bristol Channel, 16m north of
Hartland Point, north Devon. Aligned north-south, it is 6km long by 1km wide
and supports a predominately moorland vegetation. The 100m high cliffs and
tabular form give it a striking appearance, visible in clear weather from
parts of south west England and south Wales.
Lundy's remoteness and (until the 19th century construction of the Beach Road)
its inaccessibility, combined with a lack of shelter and cultivable soils, has
meant that it has escaped more recent occupation or development. It therefore
preserves a remarkable variety of archaeological sites from early prehistory
(c.8000 BC) onwards, representing evidence for habitation, fortification,
farming and industry. There are also archaeological remains in the waters
surrounding the island - over 150 shipwrecks are already recorded. Most of the
island's archaeology is well documented from detailed survey in the 1980s and
1990s.

Chambered tombs are funerary monuments constructed and used during the Early
and Middle Neolithic periods (3400-2400 BC). They comprise linear mounds of
stone covering one or more stone-lined burial chambers. With other types of
long barrow they form the burial places of Britain's early farming communities
and, as such, are amongst the oldest field monuments surviving visibly within
the present landscape. Where investigated, chambered tombs appear to have been
used for communal burial, often with only parts of the human remains having
been selected for interment. The number of burials placed within the tombs
suggest they were used over a considerable period of time and that they are
important ritual sites for local communities. Some 300 chambered tombs are
recorded in England. As one of the few types of Neolithic structure to survive
as upstanding monuments, and due to their rarity, their considerable age and
longevity as a monument type, all chambered tombs are considered to be
nationally important.
Much of the small chambered tomb north east of the Rocket Pole Pond survives
and will provide valuable information about the date and purpose of the
monument. The soil beneath and around the tomb will also yield evidence of the
environmental conditions at the time it was constructed. This is the only
chambered tomb so far recorded on Lundy.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Gosse, PH, Land and Sea, (1865)
Other
Title: Ordnance Survey Record
Source Date: 1962
Author:
Publisher:
Surveyor:

Source: Historic England