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Summary

Bronze Age barrow beyond the outer ramparts on the northeast side of 'Embury Beacon' fort. Visible as an earthwork mound on the ground, on aerial photographs taken from 1956 and on images dervived from lidar data captured from 2013 onwards.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1003845: Embury Beacon camp
• SHINE: Prehistoric barrow north-east of Embury Promontory Fort

Other References/Statuses

• MORPH: DE.121.23.1
• National Monuments Record: NMR/ 9
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS21NW/509
• Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division: SS21NW9

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• EARTHWORK (Unknown date)
• BARROW (Bronze Age - 2200 BC to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

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

Site of 'Tumulus' shown on 1880s-1890s 25 inch Ordnance Survey map as an earthwork to the northeast of 'Embury Beacon'.

Royal Air Force, 1956, RAF/82/1451, NMR RAF/82/145 F21 0082-0083 12-JUL-1956 (Aerial Photograph). SDV349052.

An earthwork mound is visible.

Grinsell, L. V., 1970, The Barrows of North Devon (Article in Serial). SDV7849.

Site visit 5th April 1969. Roughly circular. May be a barrow or an outwork of the promontory fort. 20 paces diameter, 3 feet high.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1977 - 1984, SS21NW9 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV10449.

Site visit 20th October 1977. Rather doubtful barrow. Irregular oval mound 24 metres east-west, 12 metres north-west to south-east. Levelled on north-west side. Maximum height 1 metre.

Devon Committee for Rescue Archaeology, 1979 - 1981, North Devon Barrow Survey, DCRA ND41 (Archive - Survey). SDV341310.

Griffith, F. M., 1986, DAP/HM, 4-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDV10455.

Bayer, O. J., 1996, Barrows in the Torridge District of North West Devon: A Study in Distribution and Location, Hartland 13 (Undergraduate Dissertation). SDV319515.

Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1997, Embury Beacon, Hartland, 5-6 (Report - Survey). SDV325680.

The survey in 1997 found the mound beyond the outer ramparts of 'Embury Beacon' promontory fort was circa 20 metres by 26 metres by up to 1.1 metres high with no indication of a ditch or surface stone.

Environment Agency, 2000-2019, LiDAR DTM data (1m resolution) EA: Tamar Aerial Survey project area, LIDAR Environment Agency LAST RETURN 23-FEB-2019 (Cartographic). SDV363954.

An irregular earthwork mound is visible.

Cornwall County Council, 2002, Cornwall National Mapping Programme (Archive - Survey). SDV350748.

The barrow is visible as a medium size oblong earthwork mound on aerial photographs taken in 1956.

Collings, A. G. + Manning, P. T. + Valentin, J., 2007, The North Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Phase 1. Archaeological Survey. Summary Report, No. 336 (Report - Assessment). SDV339712.

Irregular oval mound 24 metres east-west, 12 metres north-west - south-east. Levelled on north-west side. Ordnance Survey describe it as a 'rather doubtful barrow'.

AC Archaeology, 2013, Embury Beacon Summary - August 2013, 2 (Report - non-specific). SDV351944.

The nature of the barrow was less clear since the feature has been subject to disturbance in the form of medieval or post-medieval field boundaries and more recent truncation, including ploughing. The profile through the mound did, however, appear to be constructed of deliberately laid deposits and is consistent with the construction of a Bronze Age barrow. No encircling ditch was identified, but burnt bone and Early Bronze Age pottery are further support that this previously enigmatic structure is indeed a heavily disturbed prehistoric barrow.
The preliminary conclusions of the palaeoenvironmental analyses indicates that the barrow was constructed in an open environment.

NERC, 2013, LiDAR DTM data (1m resolution) Tellus: Tamar Aerial Survey project area, LIDAR Tellus LAST RETURN 01-JUL-2013 to 31-AUG-2013 (Cartographic). SDV363955.

An irregular earthwork mound is visible.

Ordnance Survey, 2014, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV355681.

Hegarty, C., Houghton, E., Knight, S. and Sims, R., 2020-2021, Tamar/Lidar; A Single Source Approach to Landscape Survey and Socially Distanced Community Archaeology Area 2 (Culture Recovery Fund project) (Interpretation). SDV364011.

This barrow is visible as an irregular earthwork mound on lidar data captured from 2013 onwards. No extra detail was visible, though the area of the mound appears smaller than the mound that was transcribed from the previous NMP project.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV4415 - Devon Barrow Survey
• EDV8356 - Tamar/Lidar; A Single Source Approach to Landscape Survey and Socially Distanced Community Archaeology Area 2 (Culture Recovery Fund) (Ref: ACD2424)

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.