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Summary

The remains of a circle of stones surviving as a partial ring of five boulder and stones with an off-centre earthfast boulder; the overall diameter was approximately 10.0m to 10.6m across. The largest of the two slabs which remain upright is 0.8m high, 1.7m wide and 0.3m thick. The origin and function of this feature are as previously stated unclear; it probably represents the remains of an extensively robbed cairn although it may possibly have been a small stone circle.

Location

Protected Status

• SHINE: Bronze age landscapes on Shaugh Moor and Wooter Moor comprising earthworks and walling of enclosures, hut circles, cairns, stone circles and rows, reaves and field systems, and medieval and post medieval field systems

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX56SE135
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 439492
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX56SE/262
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX56SE/31
• Old SAM County Ref: 429

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• (Alternate Type) ROUND CAIRN (Constructed, Early Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 4000 BC (Between) to 701 BC (Between))
• (Alternate Type) STONE CIRCLE (Constructed, Early Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 4000 BC (Between) to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1953-1969, 1953-1969 National Grid OS A edition imperial, (1952) (Cartographic). SDV352727.

(SX 55416348) Cairn Circle (NR).

Grinsell, L. V., 1978, Dartmoor Barrows, 165, Number 41A (Article in Serial). SDV273224.

(08/05/1976) SX 5541 6349 Four stones of a retaining circle and one stone near the centre. No mound or cairn. Diameter 9.5 metres.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1980, SX56SE135, Plan (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV175858.

(25/08/1980) The Ordnance Survey publication (1952) resulted from field work in 1949 (GWR 29 12 1949), when the investigator failed to find Worth's stone row (SX 56 SE 45) but erroneously concluded that this was the 'cairn circle' at the south-western end of the row.
The published monument comprises an elongated and mostly buried stone, its surface 1.0m. long and 0.3m. high, with five large stones around it in the form of a semi-circle approximately 9.0m. in diameter. Two are massive slabs, one recumbent, the other 0.9m. high; two others are recumbent pillar type stones at ground level, and the last is an upright block 0.5m. high.
There is no evidence of any holes indicating robbed stones that might have completed the circle but, although the natural ground has slight western slope, there is a distinct levelling of the circular area (see ground photograph & plan).
It is notable that Breton recorded the 'remains of a circle' at SX 553635 (Rec 6" [H. Breton undated]), possibly during his incumbency of Sheepstor circa 1909-1914, and this is a typical Breton site, inaccurately positioned and initially unconvincing. A few scattered earthfast blocks, up to 0.4m. high, protrude from the turf to the north-west of the circle and were it not for the level ground the group might be considered a fortuitous arrangement. It evidently did not attract Worth's attention, but is not easily dismissed.
Whether the stones represent the remnants of a stone circle, a cairn circle, or even a hut is debateable.
Surveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D.

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

Recorded in project and shown on map overlay.

Turner, J. R., 1990, Ring Cairns, Stone Circles and Related Monuments on Dartmoor, 81, G18 (Article in Serial). SDV229817.

Stone circle, 9.7 metres diameter, four stones standing with one central stone.

Butler, J., 1994, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Three - The South-West, 105-6, Map 48.5 (Monograph). SDV137656.

Butler does not record this feature, but does refer to the group of cairns between the stone row and the road (MDV14571), excavated by Smith in 1979 prior to their destruction through clay working.

Fletcher, M. + Probert, S., 1998, Shaugh Moor, Devon: An Archaeological Survey (Report - Survey). SDV343481.

(02/12/1997) Centred at SX55416349. The remains of a circle of stones lie on a north-west facing hillslope at 256m above OD on unenclosed moorland. It survives as a partial ring of five boulder and stones with an off-centre earthfast boulder; the overall diameter was approximately 10.0m to 10.6m across. The largest of the two slabs which remain upright is 0.8m high, 1.7m wide and 0.3m thick.
The impressive stone circle located at the terminal of the stone row lies to the south (SX 56 SE 45).
The origin and function of this feature are as previously stated unclear; it probably represents the remains of an extensively robbed cairn although it may possibly have been a small stone circle.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV4967 - Shaugh Moor Survey (1997-1998)

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