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Summary

A settlement of eleven hut circles with an associated field system and boundary banks, situated on a hilltop and high ridge of open close cropped moorland.

Protected Status: None recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Cornwall PROJECT ID: BM
• National Mapping Programme (Morph No.): 2098.11.1
• OS No. (OS Quarter-sheet and OS No.): SX17NW 9
• Primary Record No. (1985-2009): 1929
• SHINE Candidate (Yes)
• SMR No. (OS Quarter-sheet and SMR No.): SX17NW 76

Monument Type(s):

• FIELD SYSTEM (Prehistoric - 500000 BC to 42 AD)
• HUT CIRCLE SETTLEMENT (Prehistoric - 500000 BC to 42 AD)

Full description

A settlement of eleven hut circles (1929.4-1929.17) with an associated field system (1929.3) and boundary banks (1929.2) are situated on a hilltop and high ridge of open close cropped moorland. The settlement and field system cover an area of approximately 9 hectares; the largest of the two boundary banks extends to the north east for 865m. The site was first recorded by Dudley (b1), who noted the existence of huts and a field system. In 1973 the OS (h1) identified and surveyed six hut circles and a couple of field banks. The site was resurveyed, from the air and on the ground, in the 1980s by the RCHM (h2, h3, b2). The latter found that one of the huts located by the OS at SX 1042 7637 (1929.12) is in fact sited at SX 1043 7634 (1929.13), and that another alleged hut circle (1929.17) is more probably a clearance cairn or denuded sepulchral cairn. The RCHM survey identified a total of eleven hut circles, scattered throughout the field system in a random pattern. Their internal diameters range from 4.4m to 10.2m and their walls survive as stony turf-covered banks 1.1m to 2.2m wide and 0.2m to 0.5m high, though in a few instances they are only detectable as a spread of small stones. Inner facing slabs are present in only a couple of huts, suggesting that the settlement has been heavily robbed of stone. In most cases the position of the hut entrance cannot be identified. The field system consists of irregular and rectangular shaped fields radiating from a central plot and bounded on the north by linear boundary banks. The latter and the banks within the field system are of simular proportions and construction, but their chronological relationship is uncertain. A number of clearance cairns also survive within the field system. Four of the field banks run up to a large sepulchural cairn (1997).

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Site history:
1: 1973. JWS / OS
3: 1984. FLETCHER, M / RCHM
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<1> Dudley, D, 1953, Annotated 6-Inch Map (Bibliographic reference). SCO3265.

CUC, 1978, RC8 BU 185 (Photographic Record). SCO16336.

<2> RCHM, 1980s, 1:2500 Air Photo Transcript, SX 1076, SX 1176 (Bibliographic reference). SCO4238.

<3> CAU, 198-, Overlay to 1:10,000 SMR Map (Bibliographic reference). SCO5174.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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