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Summary

Stone alignment consisting of a 128 metre long, single row of twenty-seven stones, although only thirteen remain in place and these have an average height of 0.19 metres. The spacing between the stones is intermittent as a result of either partial robbing or some of the smaller ones being buried below the present day ground surface due to peat accumulation. The downslope terminal stone lies at the southern end of the stone alignment and measures 2.95 metres high, 0.75 metres wide and 0.4 metres thick. This stone was re-erected by the Dartmoor Exploration Committee in 1893. Condition of this monument is declining.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1007897: Stone alignment and round cairn on Langstone Moor
• SHINE: Prehistoric stone row with a cairn at the northern end and a standing stone at the southern end, at right angles to track across Petertavy Great Common, on south side of Cudlipptown Down

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX57NE18
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 439621
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX57NE/18
• Old SAM County Ref: 366
• Old SAM Ref: 20399

Monument Type(s) and Dates

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

Full description

Brooking-Rowe, J., 1893, Seventeenth Report of the Committee on Scientific Memoranda, 172 (Article in Serial). SDV255460.

Describes the stone row briefly and the re-siting of the menhir: "On Langstone Moor, near White Tor, in Peter Tavy, is a stone row 330 feet long , running north by north-east and south by south-west. It consists of about 35 stones in a single line, mostly small. It leads off from a menhir that had fallen, but which had given its name to the moor and formed one of the way-signs for the lychway after passing White Tor, before Whittabarrow was reached. The lychway, in fact, has passed athwart the stone row, close by the menhir."

Baring Gould, S., 1895, Second Report of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee, 83 (Article in Serial). SDV271711.

Baring Gould, S., 1899, Sixth Report of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee, 152 (Article in Serial). SDV344950.

Tyler, F. C., 1930-1931, Kistvaens at Thornworthy and Stone Rows, 115-119 (Article in Serial). SDV251072.

This row is included in a discussion by Tyler on the orientation of stone rows.

Worth, R. H., 1946, The Stone Rows of Dartmoor. Part 1, 299, Row no.30. (Article in Serial). SDV251172.

Langstone Moor. Stone row, consists of very small stones. Has been robbed. 18 stones remain, the largest of which stands only 0.4 metres over ground. Original spacing may have been about 1.5 metres. Remains of second row nearly parallel to it, leading from a cairn formerly surrounded by a circle of stones. Remains of barrow now reduced to a rubble ring at the northern end. At the southern end is the menhir, the longstone. The stones all of epidiorite, the local stone. Direction of length north 2 degrees east.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950-1953, SX57NE18 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV255487.

18/07/1950 - Stone row remains and menhir are correct as shown on the 1906 map. Worth (1946) quoted. Worth's description is correct except that the present length is approximately 95 metres. No trace of the barrow could be found at the northern end of the row.
04/08/1953 - Menhir (longstone) southern terminal. A possible tiny cairn dug over at the norhtern end.

Royal Air Force, 1964, RAF/F65/58/6399, 039-040 (Aerial Photograph). SDV255418.

Worth, R. H., 1967, Worth's Dartmoor, 216-7 (Monograph). SDV337618.

The menhir has been deliberately used as a target, and the barrow wrecked.

Grinsell, L. V., 1978, Dartmoor Barrows, 161 (Article in Serial). SDV273224.

8/5/1974 Mutilated cairn at northern (upper) end of stone row excavated 1898 without result. Diameter 6.0 metres, height 0.3 metres (citing Baring-Gould).

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

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

No photographs available.

Griffiths, F. M., 1986, Site visit notes - Langstone Moor stone row (Personal Comment). SDV255494.

24/8/1986 Stone row as previously described. Stones very small. At the northern end barrow not visible: there was a large pool of water here.

Gerrard, S., 1990-2002, Monument Protection Programme. Archaeological Item Dataset., 1990 (Report - Survey). SDV277946.

Stone alignment of the long single alignment type. Includes a 128 metre long, single row of twenty-seven stones, although only thirteen remain in place. Average height 0.19 metres. Spacing between stones is intermittent. The downslope terminal stone lies at the southern end of the alignment and measures 2.95 metres high, 0.75 metres wide and 0.4 metres thick. This stone was re-erected by the Dartmoor Exploration Committee in 1893.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Two - The North, 77, 234, Map 30, Figure 30.8 (Monograph). SDV219155.

Langstone Moor stone row of 118 metres with the upper end at SX5504447885 with a possible cairn at the upper north end and a standing stone known as the 'Langstone' at the lower southern end. North of the Langstone is a single row of 26 small stones but with many gaps. The majority of stones have fallen and the 12 that remain in place are on average only 19 centimetres high. In 1895 the Dartmoor Exploration Committee examined some of the socket holes but nothing was found beyond establishing that the missing stones could not have been of any great size. A flat circular area a short distance beyond the last surviving stone is probably the site of a cairn which has been entirely removed.

Newman, P., 2003, The Langstone Moor Stone Circle, Peter Tavy, Devon and its Prehistoric Environs, 4, fig 2 (Report - Survey). SDV255420.

Stone row survey by English Heritage in 2003 revealed 27 stones were visible in an erratic alignment with several large gaps. 22 stones are set in the ground although some are loose and the tallest is only 0.3 metres high. Two stones at the northern end appear to be out of alignment and are surrounded by small mounds which may represent the remains of a cairn which was destroyed when a seasonal pond was excavated. Damage has been caused by a sunken trackway at the southern end with a later track causing further damage around 10 metres to the north.

Ordnance Survey, 2017, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV359962.

'Stone Row' is depicted on the modern mapping.

Historic England, 2017, National Heritage List for England (National Heritage List for England). SDV359963.

This monument is situated on a broad ridge between Cocks Hill and White Tor and includes a stone alignment, cairn and part of a hollow way called the Lichway. The stone alignment includes a 128m long, single row of twenty-seven stones, although only thirteen remain in place and these have an average height of 0.19m. The spacing between the stones is intermittent as a result of either partial robbing or some of the smaller ones being buried below the present day ground surface due to peat accumulation. The downslope terminal stone lies at the southern end of the stone alignment and measures 2.95m high, 0.75m wide and 0.4m thick. This stone was re-erected by the Dartmoor Exploration Committee in 1893. At the northern end of the stone alignment is a round cairn. The cairn mound measures 5m in diameter and stands up to 0.4m high. A hollow in the centre of the mound suggests previous robbing or partial early excavation. A hollow way measuring 4m wide and 0.4m deep, known as the Lichway, passes between the downslope terminal stone and the remainder of the alignment. This trackway leads across Dartmoor towards Lydford and is known to have been the route used to carry the dead to the parish church in the early medieval period.

National Monument Record, 2017, Pastscape, (1978 and 2003 data) (Website). SDV359964.

On the flattish part of Langstone Moor at approximately 441.0 metres OD is the remains of a stone row. The row is aligned north/south and is visible in part over 120.0 metres from SX55027873 to SX55027886. The spacing between the stones is intermittent (? due to robbery). The stones average 1.0 metre long, 0.3 metres wide and 0.3 metres high. The much reduced barrow at the northern end was not found. The standing stone, 2.95 metres high and 0.75 metres by 0.4 metres is at the southern end though somewhat damaged on the west face by rifle fire.
Revised at 1:10 000 on PFD and at 1:1000 (citing Ordnance Survey, 11/09/78, Field Investigators Comments).
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The standing stone is located near the head of the Colly Brook, due east of Whittor, south of the summit of a natural saddle of land between the lower slopes of the latter and Cock's Hill at an altitude of 437 metres above OD. Although the stone overlooks and may be seen from a large expanse of land to the south-west, south and south-east, from the north the stone is obscured by a slight rise in the ground and is only visible from as far away as the summit of the hill, a distance of approximately only 300 metres. The siting of the stone was clearly not chosen for all round visibility. It stands to 2.75 metres, with an erosion hollow around the base. This stone sustained damage in the war years and impressions formed by ordnance impacts are visible on the west face.
The standing stone forms the southern terminal of a single stone row which is oriented just 5º east of north. Twenty-seven stones are currently visible, arranged in a somewhat erratic alignment with several large gaps. Twenty-two of the stones are earthfast, though of these, some are loose in the ground. All the stones are low, the tallest is only 0.3 metres high though most are flush with the ground and of generally small proportions. Two stones at the northern end of the row appear to be out of alignment with the main body, and are surrounded by small mounds. Also at the northern end there is a large, egg-shaped shallow seasonal pond of 632 metres squared which it has been suggested lies on the site of a former cairn.
Damage in the recent past has been caused by a sunken trackway being cut through the alignment just north of the standing stone. This in turn has become disused and current vehicle traffic is using a route 10m to the north causing further damage to the monument.
The stones (from north-south):
1. In small turf mound 0.2m high
2. In small turf mound 0.2m high
3. 0.1m high
4. Flush with ground
5. Fallen
6. Loose, 0.2m high
7. Fallen
8. Fallen and loose
9. Fallen and loose
10. 0.2m high
11. Fallen
12. 0.25m high
13. small, completely loose
14. 0.1m high
15. Flush with ground
16. Completely loose
17. Flush with ground
18. Flush with ground
19. Flush with ground
20. Flush with ground
21. Flush with ground, slightly offset
22. Fallen
23. 0.3m high
24. Loose o.15m high
25. Fallen 0.25m high
26. 0.2m high
27. 0.2m high, disturbed in trackway (citing Newman, P., 01/10/2003, English Heritage Archaeological Field Investigation).

Newman, P., 2018, Archaeological Sites within Merrivale Training Area, Dartmoor National Park, Devon: A condition survey on behalf of Defence Infrastructure Organisation, 11/01/2018 (Report - Survey). SDV361635.

A single fragmentary stone row of 27 visible stones and a terminal standing stone (The Longstone) at the southern end. The row is 300 metres long. The tallest stone of the row is 0.3 metres high though the Longstone is 2.75 metres high.
Condition is described as poor; stability of the monument assessed as 'gradual decline': Stone row continues to be bisected by vehicle tracks (as reported in 2005 and 2010). Terminal standing stone is within a water-worn erosion hollow. Supporting stones around the base are further exposed since 2010 assessment.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV7275 - Survey of the Langstone Moor stone circle and other prehistoric monuments nearby
• EDV7441 - Condition survey of the archaeological sites of Merrivale Training Area
• EDV7570 - Condition survey of Merrivale Range training area
• EDV8406 - Excavation at Cairn, Langstone Moor
• EDV8713 - Merrivale Range: Monument Baseline Condition Survey

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