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Summary

Remains of a cairn, visible as a turf covered stony mound. Prowse (1891) records another cairn with possible cist but 1989 field survey confirmed this to be natural feature.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1021329: Cairn 190m west of Archerton

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX67NW4
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 442519
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX67NW/1
• Old SAM Ref: 34488

Monument Type(s) and Dates

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

Full description

Prowse, A. B., 1891, The Ancient Metropolis of Dartmoor, 314, plan (Article in Serial). SDV245176.

There are two cairns just above Archerton where the "trackway" (LIN 150) bends (see plan). The westerly cairn is 6 yards diameter; the other is 5 yards diameter and contains the remains of a cist.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950, SX67NW4 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV265246.

(23/06/1950) Cairn. Turf covered, hollowed in the centre, badly mutilated. Height 0.4m, diameter 7.0m.

Royal Air Force, 1951, RAF/540/483, 4047-4048 (Aerial Photograph). SDV224087.

Grinsell, L. V., 1978, Dartmoor Barrows, 147 (Article in Serial). SDV273224.

(22/07/1972 ) Diameter 6.5m, height 0.3m. Mutilated cairn with retaining circle of which 8 stones remain visible.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1978, SX67NW4 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV265250.

(08/09/1978) At SX 63507920 on Chittaford Down is a mutilated cairn, 6.0m. in diameter and 0.4m. in height. Five stones which protrude through the turf may be the remains of a peristalith.
There is no other cairn in the immediate vicinity and Prowse's easterly cairn is probably that recorded as SX 67 NW .
Surveyed at 1:10 000 on PFD.

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

SX63507915; a turf covered cairn hollowed and badly mutilated is 0.4m high and 7.0m in diameter. Just visible on 1951 RAF aerial photograph.

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

(23/08/1989) SX 63497919. On a gentle NE facing slope of Chittaford Down about 415m OD in an area of rough grassland are the remains of a cairn, visible as a turf covered stony mound.
The NE quadrant is robbed out but around the rest of the periphery are parts of a kerb of small boulders, some set on edge and giving a diameter of 6.5m NW-SE. The cairn has a maximum height of 0.6m in the SW quadrant, but elsewhere the interior is badly robbed.
An upright stone about 1m SW of the centre may be the NW end stone of a cist. It is 0.4m wide NE-SW, 0.1m thick and protrudes 0.1m from the turf, with a slight hollow to the SE.
From the NE southwards around to the SW there appears to be a slight outer platform almost certainly debris from robbing.
Prowse's (1891) map is accurate and shows this cairn in its correct position. He also mentions another cairn '5 yards in diameter' which contains 'the remains of a cist'. This is annotated 'Kistvaen' on this map about 40m ENE of the above.
There is no cairn or cist in this area but (contra OS 1978) at SX 63537921 (the position of the Kistvean) is a large partly turf covered flat slab, 1.5m NE-SW by 0.5m wide and about 0.1m thick, resting on another stone within a hollow and surrounded by an earthen mound. The whole is a large outcrop of rock which has been split by stone cutters ( their weathered chisel marks can be seen along the edges of the slab), leaving this slab like piece.
The hollow is caused by digging to obtain access to the store and dumped around its upper side forming an apparently excavated mound with cist in the centre.
There is no doubt from plan position and appearance on the ground that this must have been (understandably) mistaken by Prowse as a cairn and cist.

Turner, J. R., 1990, Ring Cairns, Stone Circles and Related Monuments on Dartmoor, 74, E14 (Article in Serial). SDV229817.

Platform circle. Ring of kerb stones, 5.8m internal diameter, enclosing flat-topped cairn 0.3m high. Much disturbed.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8648 - Middle Merripit Farm, Duchy Farms Survey
• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project
• EDV8423 - Duchy Farms Project

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