Successful conservation efforts at Emblance Downs Stone Circles

The Monumental Improvement project, primarily funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, is seeking to ensure that 40 at risk and vulnerable Scheduled Monuments in the Cornwall National Landscape, spanning over 6,000 years of prehistory and history, are better identified, supported and enjoyed by a wide range of people by 2025.

One of the key outputs of the project is to remove as many of the sites from the Heritage At-Risk register as possible, whilst providing training for local volunteers to help care for the Monuments in the future. Through an extensive activity programme and increased interpretation, the project will also connect more people to heritage in the Cornwall National Landscape, provide skill development and improve the health and wellbeing of local communities.

In this week’s Environment page article, we focus on one of the Scheduled Monument sites, Emblance Downs Stone Circles, which is situated on Bodmin Moor in Section 12 of Cornwall National Landscape.  Emblance Downs Stone Circles consists of two Bronze Age stone circles that sit approximately 2.5m apart and are included in the Monumental Improvement project (MI).

This monument has previously been at risk due to livestock erosion around the stones which created hollows causing the stones to become unstable.  Cattle, ponies and sheep rub against the stones and erode the ground surrounding the base which exposes the packing stones, and this ultimately leads to destabilisation. Hollows created by the erosion are then filled with rainwater making them even more vulnerable to toppling. A survey carried out in 2021 found that the hollows, which at the time were filled with water, were up to 60cm deep.

Back in August 2023 the MI project carried out conservation repairs to the western stone circle by infilling 2 eroded hollows creating a solid surface around the stones, as well as re-erecting another one of the stones. Following these works this site was successfully removed from Historic England’s Heritage At-Risk Register.

The MI project have also commissioned drone imagery and 360 degree panoramas to be captured, this will become part of the digital interpretation for the site giving visitors a greater understanding of the monument’s significance.

Monitoring of the site is key to its long-term survival. Informed by the recommendations of a new site management plan, volunteers will continue to monitor the condition of the repairs, feeding back any concerns or issues to the Historic England Heritage At-Risk Officer. Furthermore, the site will have accessible digital interpretation on our website including an annotated still drone image.

A special thank you to the landowner as well as Attwell Associates who supported the repairs.

Thank you also to our team of monumental volunteers who helped with the conservation works. Find out more about the conservation repairs, including short videos of the works on the Cornwall National Landscape website: https://cornwall-landscape.org/case_study/emblance-downs-stone-circle-august-2023/

This article was written by the Monumental Improvement project team and featured in The Cornish Guardian, The Cornishman and the West Briton.