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Summary

A flat-topped cairn with a disturbed bank around its crest lies on a moderate south-west slope above the left bank of the River Mardle. The feature is circular, 11.8 metres in diameter, and stands a maximum of 0.8 metres high. The stoney ring measures 1.2 metres wide and 0.3 metres high and there are no traces of a cist or kerb in the main structure. The source of the disturbance is unclear though there does not appear to have been an excavation.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1019270: Four cairns 560m east of Hapstead Ford and 1660m east of Ryder's Hill, forming part of a cairn cemetery in the Mardle Valley

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX66NE66
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 441542
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX66NE/90
• Old SAM Ref: 28766

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CAIRN (Constructed, Bronze Age - 2200 BC (Between) to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

Royal Air Force, 1946 - 1949, Royal Air Force Aerial Photographs, 1890 4365 (Aerial Photograph). SDV342938.

Photograph taken on 10th December 1946.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1977, SX66NE66 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV173608.

(26/06/1977) Round cairn at SX 67516935 of 13 metres diameter and 0.4 metres high situated on a moderate south-west facing slope at 395 metres above OD. Three projecting orthostats, within the cairn structure, might be the remains of a circle, though there is little evidence of disturbance.

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

Visible and recorded on aerial photograph.

Turner, J. R., 1990, Ring Cairns, Stone Circles and Related Monuments on Dartmoor, 64, 70, b11 (Article in Serial). SDV229817.

An embanked stone circle; an annular bank of earth and/or stone with an inner edge of orthostats. Much disturbed. Internal diameter 6.5 metres with bank 1.2 metres wide and 0.4 metres high.

Gerrard, S., 1990-2002, Monument Protection Programme. Archaeological Item Dataset., MPP 152229
MPP (Report - Survey). SDV277946.

(19/05/1999) Cairn forming part of a cairn cemetery in the Mardle Valley. Ring cairn. Diameter 10.8m, height 0.5m. 1.5m wide circular bank in which are bedded a small number of edge set slabs surrounding an internal area measuring 7.8m in diam. Soil from an early excavation forms 3 small dumps on the downslope side of the cairn i.e.: south and south-west. Grass, gorse and bilberry.

Butler, J., 1993, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Four - The South-East, 172. Map 58, Figure 58.8 (Monograph). SDV337765.

Mardle Valley '1' cairn at SX67526935 of 12.0 metres diameter by 0.3 metres high is deformed by a saucer shaped depression in the surface now turfed over and comparatively smooth, the product of some ancient excavation.

Probert, S. A. J. + Newman, P., 1997, Holne Moor, Dartmoor, Devonshire. A Landscape Survey by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (Report - Survey). SDV173671.

(06/01/1997) A flat-topped cairn at SX 67526936 with a disturbed bank around its crest lies on a moderate South-west slope above the left bank of the River Mardle. The feature is circular, 11.8 metres in diameter, and stands a maximum of 0.8 metres high. The stoney ring measures 1.2 metres wide and 0.3 metres high and there are no traces of a cist or kerb in the main structure. The source of the disturbance is unclear though there does not appear to have been an excavation.

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

'Cairn' shown on modern mapping.

Historic England, 2021, National Heritage List for England, 1019270 (National Heritage List for England). SDV364016.

The monument, which falls into four areas of protection, includes four cairns, forming part of a cairn cemetery situated on a gentle south facing slope overlooking the valley of River Mardle. The northern example is a ring cairn and survives as a 1.5 metres wide by 0.5 metres high rubble bank surrounding an internal area measuring 7.8 metres in diameter. A number of edge set slabs within this bank may represent a kerb. Hollows and trenches cutting into all four cairns indicate that they have been subjected to early undocumented investigations.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV7100 - Holne Moor Survey

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