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Summary

Hut circle to the north-west of Barn Hill of 5.8 metres diameter with walls 1.5 metres wide by 0.4 metres high. One of a group of three huts previously thought to be cairns

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX57NW65
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 439904
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX57NW/92

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• (Former Type) RING CAIRN (Constructed, Early Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 4000 BC (Between) to 701 BC (Between))
• HUT CIRCLE (Constructed, Bronze Age - 2200 BC (Between) to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

Worth, R. H., 1920, 39th Report of the Barrow Committee, 79 (Article in Serial). SDV233383.

Barrow, on Whitchurch Common, on north slope of Barn Hill. 30 feet in diameter.(worth).

Royal Air Force, 1964, RAF 58/6399, 0045-46 (Aerial Photograph). SDV225229.

Photograph taken on July 1964.

Grinsell, L. V. + Turner, 1976, Remains of a cairn (Report - Survey). SDV233380.

Visited on 23rd May 1976. Cairn, truncated probably for road metal. Diameter 8.5 metres, height 0.4 metres.

Grinsell, L. V., 1978, Dartmoor Barrows, 176 (Article in Serial). SDV273224.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1980, SX57NW65 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV225228.

(28/10/1980) On a slight SW slope at the N end of Barn Hill are three hut circles of Type (SX 56 SE 19) all turf-covered and with levelled interiors. They are within the peripheral and poorly defined part of a field system to the SW where there is also a settlement (SX 57 SW 23).
At SX53017504. A hut with an internal diameter of 5.8 metres and walling 1.5 metres wide and 0.4 metres high; there is an entrance gap in the south-west.
This is evidently Grinsell's cairn and Worths barrow. (Broadly it is on the N slope of Barn Hill as stated by Worth, but locally on the SW slope). While the structure might in isolation be construed as a cairn, the lack of any internal stone, the consistently smooth angle of the inner face of the wall, and the presence of other huts and a field system militate against the Worth and Grinsell classifications.
Surveyed at 1:10 000 on MSD (the northern-most only) and at 1:2500 (see plan).

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

Recorded on aerial photograph.

Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England, 1987-1993, Duchy Farms Project Survey Visit (Report - Survey). SDV350839.

(09/07/1991) Centred SX 5301 7499. Three hut circles survive on the N side of Barn Hill, 60m S of the Cox Tor carpark. They occupy W to WSW facing slopes at 325m above OD.
The northernmost hut, SX 5301 7504, is 5.9m in diameter, and has slight (0.3m high) turf covered rubble walls. There is no clear entrance.
Resurveyed at 1:2500 (RCHME Cox Tor Survey 1991).

Turner, J. R., 1990, Ring Cairns, Stone Circles and Related Monuments on Dartmoor, 68, a41 (Article in Serial). SDV229817.

Ring cairn with entrance. Stone ring 5.5 metres internal diameter, with bank 1.5 metres wide and 0.4 metres high. A 2.5 metres wide entrance on south-south-west side.

Butler, J., 1994, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Three - The South-West, 33-4, Map 44, Figure 44.8 (Monograph). SDV137656.

Group of three hut circles to the north-west of Barn Hill and south-west of the Cox Tor carpark. Here ancient walls have been robbed almost to ground level and the few remaining hut circles are mostly little more than circular depressions in the hillside. Grinsell identified one of these as a truncated cairn.

GeoInformation Group Ltd, 2010, 1:625 2010 Colour aerial photography for Dartmoor (12.5cm resolution) (Aerial Photograph). SDV346026.

Visible on aerial photograph.

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

Three 'Hut Circles' shown on modern mapping.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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