Caradon Hill (northern group)

The monument comprises a large circular embanked funerary cairn, part of a linear cairn group near the summit of Caradon Hill on SE Bodmin Moor. The cairn survives as a circular bank of small stones, 19m in external diameter, 2-3m wide and 0.5m high, encircling a central mound, 12m in diameter and up to 1.5m high, composed of medium to large stones. Around the S and SW sectors of the central mound's edge are a row of end-set, inward-sloping, large slabs surviving from a retaining kerb.

The surface of the central mound shows a number of hollows from stone-robbers, whose spoil has been dumped largely over the N and NE sectors of the cairn, filling the space between the mound and outer bank in that area. The same activities are responsible for a pit in the NE part of the mound, exposing a large natural boulder in its base; this pit is the only disturbance to reach a significant depth into the body of the cairn, and is off-centre and restricted in extent; consequently it is considered that any primary funerary deposits at the centre of this monument, and secondary deposits made in most other areas, will survive intact, together with the old land surface on which the monument was constructed.

The monument comprises a large circular platform cairn with a peripheral bank, part of a linear cairn group near the summit of Caradon Hill on SE Bodmin Moor. The cairn survives as a large, circular, flat-topped platform of heaped small stones, 30m diameter and 0.4m high. The bank on the platform periphery starts 3m from platform edge, leaving a clear peripheral berm; the bank is also composed of heaped small stones and survives 2m wide and generally 0.5m above the platform level, rising to 1m high in the NW sector; it is visible around the entire periphery except the disturbed S sector. The cairn interior bears no trace of any internal mound, but has a number of hollows and hummocks from limited stone-robbing from the cairn. One such hollow exposes part of a recumbent slab, appearing 1m square, at the cairn's centre. The entry for these activities has been from the S and SE sector, where the peripheral bank and platform edge have been reduced.

The monument comprises a large, circular, funerary ring cairn, part of a linear cairn group near the summit of Caradon Hill on SE Bodmin Moor. The cairn survives as a large circular ring, 24m external diameter, 4-5m wide and up to 1m high, comprising heaped small stones with occasional larger boulders, an arrangement typical of the cairn type termed a ring cairn. Three of the larger boulders remain as upright slabs within the cairn's N sector, forming the remains of a stone kerb within the body of the cairn. The interior of the ring cairn is almost stone-free, with no evidence for previous disturbance, and conforms in both level and slope with the external ground surface.

The cairn survives as a low circular mound, 15m diameter and up to 0.4m high, composed of heaped small stones. The cairn has been subject to some stone removal in the relatively recent past, modifying its original form by hollowing the central area within an undisturbed, turf-covered 2.5m wide periphery but leaving intact a consolidated stone cover overall. As a result of this stone cover, it is considered that sub-surface funerary deposits and the old land surface beneath this cairn will have survived undisturbed. A small stone-heap 4m diameter and 1m high on the SSW periphery of the cairn is clearly a mound of waste from the stone-robbing and not an original feature of the Prehistoric cairn.

The cairn survives as a circular turf-covered mound, 26m diameter and up to 1m high, comprising heaped small stones with occasional larger boulders visible; the N and W perimeters of the cairn are particularly well-defined. In the interior, some relatively recent disturbance for stone-robbing is evident as a shallow trench, 3m wide, running in from the SSW almost to the N edge, together with several linear mounds and hollows parallel to it on each side. This disturbance penetrates only to a limited depth within the cairn and it is considered that sub-surface funerary deposits and extensive areas of the old land surface will have survived intact beneath it.

The cairn has a central turf-covered mound, 13m diameter and 2m high, composed of small to medium-sized stone. The mound has a hollowed upper surface, 5m in diameter and 0.6m deep. The mound drops to the level of the platform, 0.5m higher than the external ground level. On the periphery of the platform is the outer bank, 22m in external diameter, 2-3m wide and 1.5m high, leaving a gap 1.5-2m wide to the central mound. No trace of the platform projects beyond the bank. The bank has some gaps in its S sector due to recent stone robbing, but this cairn shows no evidence of any major disturbance.

The cairn survives with an irregular central mound, c.10m in diameter and up to 1m high, composed of small to medium stones, with a number of smaller heaps and hollows in its surface deriving from the relatively recent activities of stone-robbers which have also spread the mound towards the outer bank in the S half. In the less disturbed N and NW sectors a clear gap, 4m wide and at the same level as the external ground surface, is observable between the central mound and an encircling bank, 22m in external diameter, 2-2.5m wide and up to 0.4m high. This bank is also composed of heaped small stones.

The cairn survives as a circular mound, 18m diameter and up to 0.75m high, composed of heaped small and medium sized stones visible in breaks in the turf cover. The surface of the cairn shows some slight hollows from relatively recent stone-robbing but, with one exception, these are both of limited extent and depth. This exception is a pit, 4m long by 2m wide, dug 1m deep into the SW edge of the cairn to expose a large ground-set boulder from which one end was subsequently split away by drilling. Beyond that peripheral pit, the body of the cairn remains substantially intact, as will any funerary deposits associated with it.

The cairn survives with a low rounded mound up to 18.8m in diameter and to 1m high. Parts of the mound's original surface show a formerly shallow-domed, almost flattened, profile however its present visible form has been affected by post-medieval quarrying for wall stone. That has lowered an area about 6m across at the centre of the mound though it remains above the ground level surrounding the cairn, with discarded rubble and soil heaped unevenly onto intact areas of the cairn's periphery; several hollows pass across that periphery to give access to the central quarried area.

The cairn survives with a low rounded mound up to 18.25m in diameter and up to 0.6m high. The mound rises over its peripheral 1m-1.5m to a flattened upper platform, a profile slightly modified in some areas by post-medieval rubble extraction which has produced several shallow hollows running onto the cairn from the edges. Occasional small stones from the cairn's rubble fabric are exposed in the turf, but slightly north east of centre, a group of larger slabs, some edge-set and up to 0.8m long, break through the surface turf and are considered to derive from a slab-built funerary structure called a cist.

Further relatively recent stone extraction occurs on the cairn's southern edge, which has been dug away to expose a large natural boulder; the west end of the boulder was split away using the plug-and-feather technique characteristic of 19th century and later stone-splitting. The break was clearly unsuccessful with the split end left where it fell, but one of the holes intended to guide the next break still retains its broken iron plug and two feathers jammed in place.