More information : (SX 57657168) Stone Rows (NR) Cairns (NR) (1)
The remains of two stone rows with terminal tumuli.
A. A double stone row extending for about 450 feet in a N 76o
30' E direction. At its eastern end is a barrow with a cairn
circle of 29ft 4ins diameter.
B. A single stone row extending 165ft in a N 58o 30' E direction.
At its eastern end is a barrow. (2)
There is often confusion between this site at Black Tor, Meavy,
and Black Tor, Avon. In the TDA Worth simply quotes Rowe's
"Perambulations of Dartmoor" 1848, 168, without comment. Rowe's
geographical location is correct but his descriptions of the rows is incorrect in some particulars: he states the rows are parallel and run east to west and implies that there are two cairn circles and two other cairns, evidently a duplication of description. Because of the differences Rowe's features are somtimes incorrectly assigned to Black Tor, Avon Valley, SX 6863.
Both rows are at 330m above sea level, on a slight south west
slope, intersected near the north east ends by a deep east to
west leat which has destroyed 8.0 to 10.0m of the rows.
A: The cairn, at SX 57717170, is 9.0m in diameter and 0.5m high
with evidence of an excavation at the centre. It is encompassed
by a cairn circle of fourteen stones up to 0.9m high. From here
a double row extends for 122.0m in a west south west direction
to SX 57587168. It retains some sixty-eight stones, the majority
from 0.1m to 0.4m high with others up to 0.8m. Many have been
removed and a few displaced stones lie in the row towards the
west end which terminates on an area of tin streaming; it
originally extended further.
B: The cairn, at SX 57727169 is 8.0m in diameter and 0.5m high
from which a single row extends south west for 57.0m to
SX 57657165, but it evidently originally extended beyond this
point. Only eighteen stones now survive in a rather irregular
line, almost all under 0.4m high, with large gaps in the row.
Surveyed at 1:10 000 on PFD. (3)
Scheduled (4)
One double and one single stone row each originate at a cairn. The double row is well preserved apart from the loss of its lower end and where the tinners have cut back the bank of the Meavy.; the present length is 128m. In addition some comparatively minor damage has been caused by a ditch and a leat cutting across the alignment. -as usual the tinners took pains to cause the minimum disruption and the displaced stones were neatly stacked to one side of the channel. The surviving portion has 60 pairs of stones of which 88 stones remain averaging 0.3m in height, the tallest being 0.8m in height.. A circle of fourteen slabs 9.3m across surrounds the cairn at the upper end of the row. The cairn heading the single row is 7.5m in diameter and 0.9m in height.with a central pit and surrounded by an outer ring of stones. The row is 61m long and the single stones are smaller and more closely set (5).
The double stone row leads downslope and westward from a cairn which is surrounded by a ring of stones. The row consists of two parallel lines of stones which have been destroyed or damaged by activities related to tinworking. The row measures 122m long and is aligned at 259 degrees; the northern row has 45 stones and the southern row 47 stones. There is no evidence to suggest that the row was ever restored or excavated. The single row has at least 16 stones extending at 243 degrees for 56.4m from a cairn. the cairn which has been robbed measures 7.4m in diameter and up to 0.75m high (6)
The cairns with the double and single stone rows are well preserved. The end of the double row occurs at a steep tinners' cliff. The monuments lie on a slight slope in open moorland that is broken up by tinners' cuttings and leats. Surveyed at 1:2500 scale (7) |