In September, the Cornwall AONB’s Monumental Improvement project will be working with the Cornwall Archaeological Unit to conduct an excavation of King Arthur’s Hall, an at-risk Scheduled Monument  in St Breawrd on Bodmin Moor. The team will carry out a small investigative excavation in order to understand more about the age of this enigmatic site which will ultimately help to inform its future management.

Specialists teams will be digging a small trench near the entrance to King Arthur’s Hall to examine the bank and the adjacent leat system, using Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating to try and determine when it was built. The team will also be taking pollen, peat and water samples and examining the standing stones inside the Hall in order to discover more about the construction and use of the Monument in the past.

The main objectives of the excavation are:

• To develop a clear chronology for the construction of the site

• To understand the use of the Monument and its relationship with the adjacent leat system

• To understand how the site and the environment may have changed over time

• To understand the longer-term conservation needs of the Monument

This excavation is part of the two-year Monumental Improvement project which is seeking to ensure that 40 Scheduled Monuments in the Cornwall AONB (which are on the Heritage at Risk register of classified as vulnerable), are better protected and identified