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Summary

The largest of the barrows at 'Three Barrows'. A mound of stones on a stone and earth base with diameter of 40 metres and height of 2.5 metres and a central hollow. A cross was set up on Three Barrows Hill and was one of four set up around the parish in 1557. It no longer exists, but the mutilated head of the cross is reported to turn up among the mass of boulders on the hilltop from time to time; last recorded in 2007.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1013029: One of three cairns on Three Barrows, Ugborough Moor
• SHINE: Earthwork and walling remains of the Bronze Age Three Barrows Reave, as well as a deserted medieval farmstead and post-medieval Streamworks on Ugborough Moor

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX66SE172
• National Monuments Record: SX66SE55
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 441934
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 901668
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX66SE/9
• Old SAM County Ref: 389
• Old SAM Ref: 10572

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CAIRN (Constructed, Bronze Age - 2200 BC (Between) to 701 BC (Between))
• CROSS (Constructed, XVI - 1557 AD? (Between) to 1557 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

'Tumuli' at 'Three Barrows' shown on 19th century map.

Page, J. L. W., 1895, An Exploration of Dartmoor and its Antiquities, with some account of its borders, with some account of its borders, 255 (Monograph). SDV344985.

Crossing, W., 1912 (1965), Crossing's Guide to Dartmoor, 378 (Monograph). SDV320981.

Masson Phillips, E. N., 1937, The Ancient Stone Crosses of Devon: Part I, 306 (Article in Serial). SDV240502.

A Cross shaft and damaged cross head can now be seen lying on the highest cairn on the stone row at Butterdon Hill and has been removed from there to Three Barrows (see SX 66 SE 58).

Worth, R. H., 1967, Worth's Dartmoor, 163-164, 466, Plate 32a (Monograph). SDV337618.

A large cairn, mutilated (measurements; diameter 39 metres, height 2.5 metres). This centre cairn is the largest of the 3, and stands on the parish boundary. The stones are very much disturbed round the perimeter and on the cairn. The height is slightly lower in the north than in the south.

National Monuments Record, 1969, NMR SX6463, 28-48 (Aerial Photograph). SDV165976.

Photograph taken on 12th April 1969.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1977, SX66SE55 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV141071.

(19/07/1977) A very large cairn, 45.0m. north west-south east by 38.0m. south west-north east and 2.5m. high, in a prominent position at about 464m. above O.D. It has a slightly dished top, perhaps the result of small cairns and shelters being constructed around the summit. There are small overgrown quarry pits immediately west of the barrow.
Surveyed at 1:10 000 on P.F.D.

Grinsell, L. V., 1978, Dartmoor Barrows, 168 (Article in Serial). SDV273224.

Site visited on 23rd June 1973. Central of three barrows. Cairn, largest on Dartmoor. Diameter 40 metres, height 2.5 metres.

Robinson, R., 1980, An Archaeological Check-List for South Brent (Report - non-specific). SDV150007.

A cairn built of loose granite, 39 metres diameter and 2.5 metres high. The stones are much disturbed and recently may have been cracked by heat during the Jubilee bonfire of 1977.
A cross was set up on Three Barrows Hill (summit at 652626), and was one of four set up around the parish in 1557. It no longer exists, but a fragment was reported in 1871.

Starkey, F. H., 1983, Dartmoor Crosses and Some Ancient Tracks, 21 (Monograph). SDV345128.

The mutilated head of the cross turns up among the mass of boulders on the hilltop from time to time, and was last seen in 1957.

Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1985, Aerial Photograph Project (Dartmoor) - Dartmoor Pre-NMP, 1013029 (Cartographic). SDV319854.

Visible on aerial photograph.

Butler, J., 1993, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Four - The South-East, 64, Map 54 (Monograph). SDV337765.

Central cairn on Three Barrows at SX65306259 of 43 metres diameter by 3.5 metres high still contains over three thousand cubic metres of stone.

Watson, A., 2007?, Cross at Three Barrows, Ugborough, Un-dated; this date is from the report (Photograph). SDV361042.

Image of the cross lying amongst the stones of the cairn.

Watson, A., 2007-2017?, Devon Crosses, 470, (Vol 4), images (Un-published). SDV360833.

Three Barrows SX653626
A fragment of cross head is lying amongst the mass of stones on the central cairn of three, on the summit of Three Barrows, Dartmoor.
A mutilated head of a cross, rectangular in section. Records exist that four crosses were erected about 1550 to mark the boundary of the Manor of Brent, Sir William Petre being Lord of the Manor. The crosses were erected at Three Barrows, Buckland Ford (missing), Western Whitebarrow (Petre's Cross) and Huntingdon.

Bluesky International Ltd/Getmapping PLC, 2015-2017, 2015-2017 Aerial Photographs (Aerial Photograph). SDV361462.

Visible on aerial photograph.

Newman, P., 2018, Erme Valley Survey data (GIS and Excel spreadsheet) (Cartographic). SDV361913.

Feature shown on survey.

Newman, P., 2018, The Upper Erme Valley, Dartmoor National Park, Devon: An Archaeological Survey, Appendix 1 (Report - Survey). SDV362921.

The largest of the Three Barrows is at the centre of the three, with a spread diameter of 40 metres, though it stands to only approximately 2.5 metres high. The central areas of all three cairns have been much disturbed over the centuries, though some crudely-built stone shelters, visible on satellite photography of 2002 (Google Earth), have been dismantled and the stone carefully re-assimilated into the cairn by the Dartmoor National Park Authority.

Historic England, 2020, National Heritage List for England (National Heritage List for England). SDV363414.

This is the largest of three large cairns situated prominently on the hill known as Three Barrows. It is formed by a mound of stones on a stone and earth base and is 40 metres in diameter and 2.5 metres in height. A reave runs through the cairn, which is the central one of the group, but passes the other two. The mound stones have been moved around by visitors and the cairn has a hollow in the centre.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8082 - Survey of the Upper Erme Valley

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