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Summary

Remains of a near circular structure of 39 metres by 41 metres formed by an earthen bank averaging 3.0 metres wide and from 0.1 metres to 0.2 metres high. Part of the eastern quadrant is destroyed or obscured by the Willings Walls reave which has evidently been aligned towards it. The monument as a whole is unique and enigmatic.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1019083: Medieval farmstead and field system, length of Willings Walls Reave, four round cairns, a ring cairn and pillow mounds at Willings Walls Warren

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX56NE77
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 438720
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX56NE/133
• Old SAM Ref Revised: 24231
• Old SAM Ref: 10644

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• (Former Type) RING CAIRN (Constructed, Early Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 4000 BC to 701 BC (Between))
• EMBANKED STONE CIRCLE (Constructed, Early Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 4000 BC to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

Worth, R. H., 1942, A Stone Circle in the Plym Valley, 207-210, pl. 10, 11, figs. 1-2 (Article in Serial). SDV162463.

Willings Walls Warren, Lee Moor. Unusual stone circle. Two kists nearby. Plan. A reave interferes with the circumference of the circle. Four groups of stones are in the circle. No trace of barrow within the circle; and no evidence to show that the stones were ever cists (worth). Worth, r. H. /tda/74(1942)207-210 pl.10,11 fig.1,2/a stone circle in the plym valley.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950, SX56NE77, SX56NE77 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV162466.

(01/06/1950) A very unusual stone circle diameter 42m. It consists of four groups of stone as described by Worth, reaching a height of 0.6m. No barrow or cairn is visible.
Card cites H. Breton 23.02.1950 and R. H. Worth 10.12.1948.

Worth, R. H., 1967, Worth's Dartmoor, 261-4 (1981 Ed). (Monograph). SDV337618.

Fleming, A. + Collis, J. + Jones, R. L., 1973, A Late Prehistoric Reave System near Cholwich Town, Dartmoor, 4 (Article in Serial). SDV358808.

The reave is known as Willings Walls reave.

Burl, A., 1975, The Stone Circles of the British Isles, 107, 345 (Monograph). SDV165842.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1980, SX56NE77, SX56NE77 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV162464.

(19/08/1980) Situated on a stone free shelf at 330m. OD are the remains of a near circular structure.
It is formed by an earthen bank averaging 3.0m wide and from 0.1m to 0.2m high, with two distinctly straight lengths in the south-west and south east quadrants. The internal diameter north to south is 39.0m and east to west 41.0m. Part of the eastern quadrant is destroyed or obscured by the Willings Walls reave which has evidently been aligned towards it (SX 56 NE 123).
Four groups of stones are set at irregular intervals on the bank and there may at least one other group which was an alignment point for the reave. They are in groups of from three to five, generally from 0.3 to 0.7m high, with lesser ones which may be trigging stones. They are as in Worth's plan, with a tendency for slabs to be set across the line of the bank. At each group the bank has been obliterated and this seems not an original feature but the result of animals, particularly sheep, using the stones as rubbing posts; the depressions around some stones are now 0.2m deep. The 4.0m gap in the bank in the north-west quadrant appears to be a similar depredation.
It is most improbable that the stones are the remains of robbed cists, but the monument as a whole is unique.
The interior is flat and featureless and while there could have been stone robbing to supply the reave there is no evidence to sustain this. The reave is 3.5m wide and from 0.4m to 0.6m high, containing the usual mixture of easily gathered small stones with a few larger slabs and blocks. But whereas the area to the west of the reave is relatively stone free there is an abundant supply to the east where the ground slopes upwards.
These seem two possible classifications. One, and the least convincing, is that of an enclosure totally stripped of all manageable stone. The second, and more likely, is that it is some form of "ringery" possibly an embanked stone circle with inner and outer facing pairs. (The only other embanked circle, on Ringmoor Down, probably had single close spaced stones SX 56 NE 161). Since it would be reasonable to suppose the stones would be of comparable size, and very few of this nature are in the reave it may be the original disposition was of four to six groups. The anomaly in the north-east, where four flat stones are embedded at intervals, could represent a demolished group.
Surveyed at 1:10 000 on MSD and at 1:500.

Balaam, N. + Smith, K. + Wainwright, G., 1982, The Shaugh Moor project: fourth report - environment, context and conclusion, 255 (Article in Serial). SDV260579.

Crude circle c 42m diameter created by four stone settings and a possible fifth. Willings walls reave changes direction here, suggesting that the circle pre-dates it.

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

Not visible on the 1946 Royal Air Force vertical aerial photographs used in the project.

Turner, J. R., 1990, Ring Cairns, Stone Circles and Related Monuments on Dartmoor, 32, 66, A1 (Article in Serial). SDV229817.

Turner identifies this site as a large ring cairn, the largest on Dartmoor. Stone ring 41m diameter, with bank 1m wide and 0.2m high. Four groups of stones around a ruined bank. On a north facing hillslope.

Gerrard, S., 1990-2002, Monument Protection Programme. Archaeological Item Dataset., MPP 140757 (Report - Survey). SDV277946.

15/04/1995 (SX 5817 6516). Ring cairn adjacent to and partly under the Willings Walls Reave. Cairn is internally kerbed (type 2A) and survives as 1m wide bank standing up to 0.2m high surrounding a 41m diameter internal area. At four places around the inner edge of the bank are clusters of irregular boulders and these represent the remains of an internal kerb. In the past these stones have been seen as the remains of cists, but as none of the stones are straight edged this explanation seems unlikely. More frequently this site has been described as a stone circle, but the presence of the associated earthwork bank makes this interpretation incomplete. According to Butler and Scheduled Ancient Monument documentation relating to SAM 10644 this site is an enclosure. Whilst this interpretation is possible and certainly fits the surviving evidence it seems more likely given its precise circular character that it is a ring cairn as suggested by Turner and the NAR.
The Willings Walls Reave passes through the ring cairn and significantly changes alignment within its vicinity. It has been suggested by the Central Excavation Unit that the reave builders used this item as a landmark when laying out their land division. If so this would certainly mean that the cairn was earlier than the reave and may have been an earlier territorial marker which was confirmed by the construction of the reave.

Butler, J., 1994, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Three - The South-West, 165, Map 51. (Monograph). SDV137656.

A roughly circular enclosure which must be older than the reave which respects it and its walls dismantled to build the reave. Only traces of a low bank remain connecting four or five settings of larger blocks left in place. No builings survive on the level interior.

Robertson, J. G., 1994, The Archaeology of the Upper Plym Valley (Post-Graduate Thesis). SDV139549.

Depicetd and described by Robertson.

Thackray, C., 1994, The Upper Plym Valley: the management of an historic landscape (Report - non-specific). SDV143510.

Gerrard, S., 1997, Book of Dartmoor: Landscapes Through Time (Monograph). SDV337813.

Probert, S. A. J. + Fletcher, M. J., 2002, Plym Valley survey (Report - Survey). SDV350782.

(05/03/2002) Centred SX 5818 6518. This somewhat enigmatic feature remains as described by the Ordnance Survey in 1980. Its interpretation as an embanked stone circle appears to be the most fitting.

English Heritage, 2005-2008, Prehistoric Survey Information (Cartographic). SDV345521.

Enclosure shown on survey with four hut circles around the perimeter.

Various, 2018-2020, PALs Condition Recording forms (Worksheet). SDV362781.

(11/03/2020) Condition assessed as good; some vegetation encroachment.

Various, 2018-2020, PALs Condition Recording photographs (Photograph). SDV363073.

Images taken during March 2020 visit.

Ordnance Survey, 2021, MasterMap 2021 (Cartographic). SDV364015.

'Enclosure' shown on modern mapping.

Historic England, 2021, National Heritage List for England, 1019082 (National Heritage List for England). SDV364016.

Within Scheduled area.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8148 - The Upper Plym Valley: The Management of an Historic Landscape
• EDV8155 - Plym Valley Survey: EH Project (Feb 2001 - Dec 2002)

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