More information : (SX 53057618) Cairn (NR). (1)
An ancient wall, 4 to 5 feet high, surrounds the granite summit of
Cox Tor enclosing a space 70 feet in diameter. There is no trace of a cairn in the centre apart from the 1887 Jubilee cairn, but to one
side there is a collection of stones which may be a cairn. (2)
Massive ring of small stones, about 105 feet in diameter, encircling
an outcrop. (3)
Stone heaps, shown on OS as cairn, may be remains of a cairn erected
for 1887 Jubilee. A "low vallum of stones" surrounding the higher
outcrop (enclosure or ring cairn?), diameter 25m approximately,
height uncertain. (4)
The higher pile of the Tor is surrounded by a low vallum of stones
the purpose of which is unclear unless it may have been intended to
build a cairn round the rocks as at Shell Top and Lynch Tor. (5)
On Cox Tor at 442m OD a rock shelf is surmounted by a further outcrop
about 13.0m across, which protudes some 0.5m to 3.0m above the base
of a virtually continuous bank of small stones constructed around the
out crop, with an overall diameter of about 30m by 32m.
The bank averages 9.0m wide overall, the top being about 3.0m from
the perimeter of the outcrop; externally it is up to 2.5m high and
on the inner face about 0.8m high. Here some disturbance has resulted
from building shelters in the lee of the outcrop.
It is not a Jubilee cairn; apart from the vast size (Grinsell has
underestimated or subtracted the outcrop from the diameter). Had a
commemorative cairn existed it would surely have been noted by
Crossing. It is not an enclosure in the defensive or pastoral sense.
The structure is a large and fine example of a ring cairn where the
focus is a tor or outcrop.
(cf Showery Tor, Bodmin Moor).
Surveyed at 1:10000 on MSD and at 1:2500. (6)
(SX 53057618). Cairn (NR). (7)
SX 530764. Three cairns on Cox Tor, scheduled. (See illustration
card). (See also SX 57 NW 36 and 37). (8-9)
SX 5304 7619. A Tor cairn, now disturbed, is as described by Quinell. Modern erosion continues to degrade the feature. In addition visitors to the site have removed and added stone to this cairn.
See RCHME Cox Tor Survey (1/2500 scale). |