Reasons for Designation
The Isles of Scilly, the westernmost of the granite masses of south west
England, contain a remarkable abundance and variety of archaeological remains
from over 4000 years of human activity. The remote physical setting of the
islands, over 40km beyond the mainland in the approaches to the English
Channel, has lent a distinctive character to those remains, producing many
unusual features important for our broader understanding of the social
development of early communities.
Throughout the human occupation there has been a gradual submergence of the
islands' land area, providing a stimulus to change in the environment and its
exploitation. This process has produced evidence for responses to such change
against an independent time-scale, promoting integrated studies of
archaeological, environmental and linguistic aspects of the islands'
settlement.
The islands' archaeological remains demonstrate clearly the gradually
expanding size and range of contacts of their communities. By the post-
medieval period (from AD 1540), the islands occupied a nationally strategic
location, resulting in an important concentration of defensive works
reflecting the development of fortification methods and technology from the
mid 16th to the 20th centuries. An important and unusual range of post-
medieval monuments also reflects the islands' position as a formidable hazard
for the nation's shipping in the western approaches.
The exceptional preservation of the archaeological remains on the islands has
long been recognised, producing an unusually full and detailed body of
documentation, including several recent surveys.
Platform cairns are funerary monuments of Early Bronze Age date (c.2000-1600
BC). They were constructed as low flat-topped mounds of stone rubble, up to
40m in external diameter though usually considerably smaller, covering single
or multiple burials. Some examples have other features, including peripheral
banks and internal mounds constructed on the platform. A kerb of slabs or
edge-set stones sometimes bounds the edge of the platform, and a peripheral
bank or mound if present. Platform cairns can occur as isolated monuments, in
small groups or in cairn cemeteries. In cemeteries they are normally found
alongside cairns of other types.
Platform cairns form a significant proportion of the 387 surviving cairns on
the Isles of Scilly; this is unusual in comparison with the mainland. All
surviving examples on the Isles of Scilly are considered worthy of protection.
This platform cairn on the north eastern slope of the Carn of Works has
survived well and has not been excavated. The presence of this cairn in a
group containing various other classes of cairn shows the diversity of
funerary activity during the Bronze Age. The relationships between this and
the other cairn group, the nearby prehistoric field systems and the topography
on this small island, demonstrates well the nature of land use among
prehistoric communities and the organisation of funerary and farming
activities.
Details
The monument includes a prehistoric platform cairn with an inner kerb situated
on the north eastern slope of the Carn of Works eminence on the southern part
of Gugh, Isles of Scilly.
The platform cairn survives with a heather-covered circular mound of heaped
rubble, 6m in diameter and up to 0.6m high, with a flattened upper surface,
3.5m in diameter, forming the platform. The perimeter of the platform is
defined along its northern and eastern sides by four edge-set slabs, up to
1.1m long and 0.4m high, forming the kerb.
This platform cairn forms part of a larger, more dispersed, group of 22
cairns, including two entrance graves, which occupy the southern part of Gugh.
Twenty of the cairns, including this monument, are located on or immediately
north of a low ridge which incorporates the Clapper of Works and the Carn of
Works, crossing the southern part of the island transversely. The other two
cairns are located south of the ridge. Part of a prehistoric field system is
located beyond the eastern limit of this cairn group on Dropnose Point, 110m
north east of this monument. Another large and diverse cairn group, partly
integrated with a prehistoric field system, occupies Kittern Hill on northern
Gugh, 450m to the north west.
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.
