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Summary

Drizzlecombe Stone Row '3' is the most westerly of the group of rows. The row is orientated approximately north-east by south-west and includes a double row of stones along its central length and a single line of stones at either end, which is thought to have been the original layout, rather than the result of robbing. The alignment measures 150 metres long and includes 6 recumbent and 80 upright stones, with an average height of 0.3 metres, although the blocking stone at the south-western end is much larger and stands up to 3.2 metres high. A cairn denotes the upper end of the row and two further cairns lie within close proximity.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1014145: Three stone alignments, 15 cairns, a cist, a partially enclosed stone hut circle settlement and a small clapper bridge at Drizzle Combe

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX56NE46
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 438629
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX56NE/277
• Old SAM County Ref: 462
• Old SAM Ref: 24104

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• STONE ALIGNMENT (Constructed, Early Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 4000 BC (Between) to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

Crossing, W., 1912 (1965), Crossing's Guide to Dartmoor, 434-5 (Monograph). SDV320981.

Worth, R. H., 1940, The Dartmoor Menhirs, 194/plan (Article in Serial). SDV231163.

A stone row extending 488 ft. In part the row is double; in part single. At its south west end is a standing stone and at its north east end is an 18 ft diameter barrow. The standing stone, recumbent in 1889, has since been raised and stands 10 ft 6 ins high.

Worth, R. H., 1946, The Stone Rows of Dartmoor. Part 1, 293, plate 65 (Article in Serial). SDV251172.

Stone Row A of the Drizzlecombe group. An uncircled barrow at the north-east end, a fallen menhir at the south-west end. Measures 146m long, direction of length north 47 degrees 30' east. Part of row is double, part single, probably never wholly double. Row No.17.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950, SX56NE46, Stone row (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV272651.

Stone row, Drizzlecombe. A barrow at its north-east end and a menhir at the south-west end. Length of the row is 488 feet. Row is in part double, in part a single row of stones. Doubtful whether it was ever wholly double (citing Worth, The Stone Rows of Dartmoor, Part 1, p 293 and plate 65).
(30/03/1950) The row measures 49m in length, average height of stones is 0.6m. Correct as shown on the Ordnance Survey mapping.

Emmett, D. D., 1979, Stone Rows: The Traditional View Reconsidered, 111 (Article in Serial). SDV251087.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1979, SX56NE46, Stone row (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV363472.

(01/02/1979) This double stone row, the southernmost of the three at Drizzlecombe, has an overall length of 139.5 m, or 150.0 m if measured to the centre of the cairn which terminates the row at the north-east end. The row comprises ninety stones, twenty-eight in one row and sixty-two in the other (see plan) of which six stones are recumbent. The doubling commences about half-way along and runs towards the cairn which has a diameter of 6.3 m and a height of 0.6 m. Three of four stones on the circumference form part of a possible cairn circle and there is a small depression in the top of the cairn. The alignment of the row is 50 degrees east of grid north. The standing stone at the south-west end measures 1.8 m by 0.4 m and is 3.2 m high. Surveyed at 1:10 000 on PFD and at 1:2500 for AO Records.

Balaam, N. D. + Smith, K. + Wainwright, G. J., 1982, The Shaugh Moor Project: Fourth Report - Environment, Context and Conclusion, 254 (Article in Serial). SDV145845.

Cocks, J. S. + Greeves, T. + Lady Sayer, 1983, A Dartmoor Century 1883-1983, 39; plate 39 (Monograph). SDV351365.

National Monuments Record, 1983, SF2134, 79 (Aerial Photograph). SDV231262.

Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1985, Aerial Photograph Project (Dartmoor) - Dartmoor Pre-NMP (Cartographic). SDV319854.

Recorded in project.

Quinnell, N. V., 1988, Plan of the Drizzlecombe Stone Rows and associated features, Row 17 (Plan - measured). SDV232055.

Fleming, A., 1988, The Dartmoor Reaves: Investigating Prehistoric Land Divisions, 97 105 figs 5 60 (Monograph). SDV229071.

Gerrard, S., 1990-2002, Monument Protection Programme. Archaeological Item Dataset., MPP 133413, 12/03/1993 (Report - Survey). SDV277946.

This stone alignment forms part of a cluster of Neolithic and Bronze Age ritual and settlement features including three stone alignments, at least 22 cairns, 5 enclosures and a large number of associated stone hut circles. The stone alignment is the southernmost of three examples lying in the triangle of land between Drizzle Combe and the River Plym and is situated on the lower slopes of a gentle south-west facing spur leading from Higher Hartor.
The alignment is orientated approximately north-east by south-west and includes a double row of stones along its central length and a single line of stones at either end. It is considered that this unusual mixture of single and double row within a single alignment is probably an original feature, and not the result of partial robbing. The alignment measures 150m long and includes 6 recumbent and 80 upright stones, with an average height of 0.3m, although the blocking stone at the south-western end is much larger and stands up to 3.2m high. The spacing of the stones along the row averages 1.2m and the distance between the rows along the double length averages 0.9m. A cairn (AI 133418) denotes the upper end of the row and two further cairns lie within close proximity.

Butler, J., 1994, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Three - The South-West, 135-6. 205, Map 49, Figure 49.19 (Monograph). SDV137656.

Drizzlecombe Stone Row '1' of 149.5 metres long with the east end at SX59166896. As a complex, the Drizzlecombe stone rows are set apart from settlement evidence although cairns are sited across both. Each row originates on a cairn uphill and terminating with a tall standing stone at the lower end. This row has a double section of 47 metres towards the middle. Neither of the single sections can have been paired as they are aligned along the central axis of the avenue.

Devon Archaeological Society, 1995, The Drizzlecombe Stone Rows (Leaflet). SDV272662.

Department of National Heritage, 1996, Scheduled Monument Consent Letter (Correspondence). SDV321022.

(10/4/1996) Consent granted for works concerning erosion repairs (dnh:10/4/1996).Smc granted for works concerning erosion repairs.

Gerrard, S., 1997, Book of Dartmoor: Landscapes Through Time, 35 (Monograph). SDV337813.

As a complex, the Drizzlecombe stone rows are set apart from settlement evidence although cairns are sited across both. In other similar sites such as Merrivale these two monument types are mutually exclusive and it is possible that the settlement and stone rows co-existed, before the settlement expanded and the cairns mingled with the ceremonial landscape. It should also be noted as a possibility that the stone rows may pre-date settlement entirely, and the settlement and cairn evidence was a distinctly separate phase of landscape occupation.

Butler, J., 1997, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities - Vol 5 The Second Millennium B.C., 201 (Monograph). SDV320503.

Fletcher, M. + Newman, P. + Probert, S., 1999, Drizzlecombe, Eylesbarrow, Ditsworthy and Hartor areas in the Plym Valley, West Devon (Report - Survey). SDV346268.

(23/08/1999) The stone row and the cairn are as described on a large scale plan by Quinnell (1988). In recent years a number of portable boulders have been inserted into some of the gaps in the stone row.

Probert, S. A. J. + Fletcher, M. J., 2002, Plym Valley survey (Report - Survey). SDV350782.

English Heritage, 2005-2008, Prehistoric Survey Information (Cartographic). SDV345521.

Alignment shown on survey.

Armstrong, K. + Cheetham, P., 2009, Archaeological Geophysical Survey in Peatland Environments: Case Study Survey at Drizzlecombe Stone Row Complex, Dartmoor, Devon: Preliminary Report (Report - Survey). SDV364048.

Various, 2018-2020, PALs Condition Recording forms, UP-DZ 19 (Worksheet). SDV362781.

Visited 05/02/2020. Overall condition good. Photo x3 taken.

Various, 2018-2020, PALs Condition Recording photographs, UP-DZ 19 (Photograph). SDV363073.

Photo 1: View looking 060° showing animal scrape round base of menhir and grass/moss cover along stone row. Photo 2: View looking 050° showing animal scrape between stones near centre of row and grass/moss cover along row. Photo 3: View looking 240° showing animal scrape beside stone near NE end of row and grass/moss cover along row.

Ordnance Survey, 2020, MasterMap 2020 (Cartographic). SDV363413.

Stone row depicted on the modern mapping.

Historic England, 2021-2022, NRHE to HER website, Accessed 28/06/2021 (Website). SDV364039.

Stone row surveyed in 1988 and cairn surveyed by 1995 by N.Quinnell for the new DAS visitor leaflet. Records of description, plan and table of measurements in the NMR archive. Inf: Norman Quinnell (SMR Record Form) 10/9/95
Double stone row and cairn. (English Heritage Scheduling amendment, 09-MAR-2001)

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8155 - Plym Valley Survey: EH Project (Feb 2001 - Dec 2002)
• EDV4966 - Survey of Drizzlecombe, Eylesbarrow, Ditsworthy and Hartor. The Eylesbarrow archaeological landscape
• EDV8387 - Geophysical survey at Drizzlecombe Stone Row Complex

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