Six cairns on Buttern Hill

Buttern Hill rises above the Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, a windswept plateau where the River Fowey begins its journey south. The hill carries six low cairns and a single stone row, along with one well-preserved cist. The name comes from the medieval word for good pasture, showing how long the land has been valued. The stone row stretches for about eighty metres along the western slope, pointing towards the river’s source. Twenty-three upright slabs stand an average of half a metre tall, spaced roughly three and a half metres apart. Near the summit, the cist sits within a rough circle of larger stones, its side slabs holding a tilted capstone above the hollowed interior. Visitors walk a simple grassy path up the hill to find the scattered cairns and the neat stone row. The cist’s capstone casts shifting shadows as the sun moves, while the row’s alignment draws the eye towards distant moorland ridges. From the top, wide views open over rolling heathland and the valley where the Fowey begins.