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Summary

Northern of three cairns on Shell Top summit of 20.5 metres in overall diameter, comprising small, heather covered stones, 0.8 metres wide and 0.2 metres high. It lies on the broad level summit of Shell Top. There is a 3.0 metre wide gap on the north side and the interior is slightly domed, about 0.4 metres high, possibly a natural rise since it is off-centre. The term 'stone circle' is rather a mis-nomer since only a half dozen stones protrude from the turf and in appearance it is simply a low circular bank

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1012696: Ring cairn on Shell Top
• SHINE: Cholwich Town, Penn Beacon and Shell Top Reaves. Earthworks of Bronze Age boundary works with adjacent prehistoric enclosures and hut circles, cairns and stone rows

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX56SE67
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 439297
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX56SE/193

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• RING CAIRN (Constructed, Early Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 4000 BC (Between) to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

Fleming, A. + Collis, J. + Jones, R. L., 1973, A Late Prehistoric Reave System near Cholwich Town, Dartmoor, 20 (Article in Serial). SDV358808.

Anon, 1973, Shell Top cairn, 20, Plan (Article in Serial). SDV150257.

A small stone circle, 20 metres in diameter, was found during peat cutting just east of Shell Top reave. It consists of small granite blocks in a loose circle with a single gap, 3 metres wide in the north-west side.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1977, SX56SE67, SX56SE67 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV150258.

(22/08/1977) SX 59826382. A stone ring 20.5m. overall diameter, comprising small, heather covered stones, 0.8m. wide and 0.2m. high. It lies on the broad level summit of Shell Top at 475m. above O.D. There is a 3.0m. wide gap on the north side and the interior is slightly domed, about 0.4m. high, possibly a natural rise since it is off-centre.
The term 'stone circle' is rather a mis-nomer since only a half dozen stones protrude from the turf and in appearance it is simply a low circular bank.
A comparable feature is that on Stall Down at SX 63536229 a form of ring cairn.

Grinsell, L. V., 1978, Dartmoor Barrows, 135 (Article in Serial). SDV273224.

Visited on 25th September 1976. Ring cairn, with gap just west of north. Diameter 20 metres, height 0.3 metres.

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

Not recorded.

Turner, J. R., 1990, Ring Cairns, Stone Circles and Related Monuments on Dartmoor, 68, a44 (Article in Serial). SDV229817.

Ring cairn with central area infilled. Internal diameter 18 metres with bank 1.2 metres wide and 0.3 metres high. Interior infilled to 0.2 metres below bank top.

Butler, J., 1994, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Three - The South-West, 174, 213, Map 51 (Monograph). SDV137656.

Shell Top Summit cairn '3' at 59826382 of 20 metres diameter by 0.2 metres high is a barely visible heather covered bank rising to a slight mound at the centre.

Cartographic Engineering, 2006, Dartmoor 2006 1:1250 Aerial Photography (digital) (Aerial Photograph). SDV345590.

Visible on aerial photograph.

Ordnance Survey, 2013, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV350786.

One of three 'Cairns' depicted on modern mapping.

Historic England, 2022, National Heritage List for England, 1012696 (National Heritage List for England). SDV364675.

This ring cairn lies on the summit of Shell Top and consists of a ring of granite stones 20 metres in diameter 0.8 metres in width and up to 0.3 metres in height, with a gap 3 metres in width on the north-west side.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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