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Summary

North-western of a pair of cairns on Parnell's Hill to the east of Gripper's Hil. This site is on the local list of Nationally Important Dartmoor sites.

Location

Protected Status

• SHINE: Earthworks of two Bronze Age cairns and a ring cairn 950 metres west of Skerraton Gate

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX66SE11
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 441770
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX66NE/277
• Pastscape: 441770

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• RING CAIRN (Constructed, Bronze Age - 2200 BC (Between) to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

Royal Air Force, 1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2494, 3112-3113 (Aerial Photograph). SDV147533.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1951, SX66SE11 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV169294.

(09/07/1951) Cairn 'A' at SX 69136501. The remains of a large cairn now much despoiled, the remaining stones being mostly overgrown. There is no trace of a cist. Diameter 22.5 metres, height approximately 1.0 metre.

Grinsell, L. V., 1978, Dartmoor Barrows, 138, Dean Prior 8 (Article in Serial). SDV273224.

(16/04/1977) Mutilated, cairn on Gripper’s Hill measuring 21.0 metres in diameter, 0.6 metres high. The berm on the south-west sector of the cairn is perhaps illusory.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1980, SX66SE11 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV274782.

(23/10/1980) here are two certain cairns occupying a crest position at 370m OD on a southern spur of Grippers Hill, both partly grass covered.
'A': SX 69106503 A cairn of small stones, measuring 24.0m in diameter and 1.2m high including a rim of hard packed stone and earth which is 0.7m high and 2.0m wide. This rim extends around the top.
As with most cairns there are small pits and evidence of disturbance around the central area so that the platform is not uniformly flat but it seems unlikely that the deliberate rim construction is a result of robbing. Their appearance is consistent with other platform cairns with rims on Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor; and Trelow Downs, St Issey. (See ground photographs)
Grinsell's small cairn at SX 69126501, is no longer recognisable as such, appearing as a pit with a rim of upcast.
Large cairns surveyed at 1:2500 and at 1:10000 on MSD. (See plan)

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

Not recorded during the Aerial Photograph Project.

Turner, J. R., 1990, Ring Cairns, Stone Circles and Related Monuments on Dartmoor, 69 (Article in Serial). SDV229817.

A55. A ring cairn, Harbourne Head consisting of a stone ring 17.0 metres in diameter internally, with bank 1.8 metres wide and 0.4 metres high. Cairn contains a central mound, 12.0 metres in diameter, 0.8 metres high. This type of cairn is referred to as a Dartmoor version of the Wessex bell barrows.

Butler, J., 1993, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Four - The South-East, 160-161, Map 57 (Monograph). SDV337765.

Parnell's Hill '1' cairn at SX69116503. Cairn of 23 metres diameter is one of two badly damaged cairns. Both have an outer bank surrounding a slightly raised interior with a mound in the centre.

Gerrard, S., 2004, List of Sites Remaining to be Considered for Designation on Dartmoor (Un-published). SDV345444.

This site was considered for designation as a Scheduled Ancient Monument during the Monument Protection Programme. The programme ended before the entire list of sites was successfully scheduled so this is included on a local list of Nationally Important Sites.

Ordnance Survey, 2010, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV344030.

Cairn shown on modern mapping.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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