See important guidance on the use of this record.

If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Summary

Remains of a cairn 8.0 metres diameter and up to 0.2 metres high to the north of the hut settlement. There are two pits cut into it, probably the result of work carried out by the Dartmoor Exploration Committee in 1901.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1017986: Unenclosed stone hut circle settlement, two cairns and section of field system 330m north east of Hemstone Rocks

Other References/Statuses

• MPP Archaeological Item Dataset: 144139
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68SW/2/2
• Old SAM County Ref: 960
• Old SAM Ref: 28674

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CAIRN (Constructed, Early Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 4000 BC (Between) to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

Baring Gould, S., 1901, 7th Report of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee, 137 (Article in Serial). SDV249499.

North of hemstone rocks and about two hundred yards from the brow of the clatter. The western most cairn had been denuded of its stones but on digging into the stump a pit in the 'calm' was found 22 inches in diameter and 15 inches deep. It contained burnt bones, wood charcoal and two small pieces of fired flint. This pit was surrounded by a circle of small stones 3 feet in diameter. A small cairn hard by rendered a little wood charcoal in a hollow depression in the calm. Further east is another ruined cairn with a neat pit dug in the calm and covered with a flat stone. It contained much wood charcoal.

Worth, R. H., 1902, 21st Report of the Barrow Committee, 109, 111, 115, 129, Fig. (Article in Serial). SDV20971.

A cairn near Hemstone Rocks yielded an urn-shaped pit with a cover stone. The pit was 12 inches wide at the mouth and 17th inches deep. /a flint flake is recorded from a cist and flakes also from a cairn.

Turner, J. R., 1976, Ancient Monuments on Forestry Commission Land. Fernworthy and Bellever (Report - non-specific). SDV351823.

Fernworthy Plantation. Hemstone Rocks. 9F. Cairn beside site 8F. Very low and considerably mutilated. 5.5 metres diameter. Excavated in 1900. Has been planted over.
February 1976. 17 posts ringing clearance zone enclosing sites 6F-9F. Trees standing inside and those outside are within falling distance of cairn.
1955 Spooner and Dixon Report (B) Region North of the South Teign (Froggymeade, Toms Hill and Hemstone) Site No. 22. Not identified.

Grinsell, L. V., 1978, Dartmoor Barrows, 145 (Article in Serial). SDV273224.

Ring of low cairn, disturbed and planted. 5.7 metres diameter, 0.5 metres high.

Turner, J., 1978, Report of Work Carried Out by the Forestry Commission since January 1976 (Report - non-specific). SDV351816.

No work has been carried out on this group since 1976. Some of the posts need attention.

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

flat-topped cairn with kerb stones. 6.0 metres diameter, 0.3 metres high. Now cleared of trees.

Gerrard, S., 1990-2002, Monument Protection Programme. Archaeological Item Dataset., 144139 (Report - Survey). SDV277946.

Site visit 28th April 1997. Cairn at SX64848383 on northern edge of unenclosed settlement. Diameter 8.0 metres, height 0.8 metres. Stony mound with two separate pits cut into it, one 2.0 metres by 1.0 metres by 0.2 metre pit on the south side and the other 1.5 metres by 0.3 metres by 0.3 metres deep on the west side.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Two - The North, 157-158, 242, Map 35, Site 7 (Monograph). SDV219155.

Hemstone Rocks cairns 1-4 at SX648838, one with a cist. A report by the Dartmoor Exploation Committee in 1900 records four cairns in the vicinity, not relocated, together with one of a group of three hut circles which may have been part of the same settlement. A flint knife was found within a cist, all that remained of one of the cairns. The other three covered a central pit containing charcoal and one of them also contained burnt bone and two pieces of flint. The excavated hut produced a flint scraper and a cooking stone.

Watts, S., 20/05/2014, Cairns to north of Hemstone Rocks (Personal Comment). SDV356635.

The reports of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee refer to three cairns to the north of Hemstone Rocks but later reports only mention two. Consequently it is difficult to identify with any certainty which cairn is which.

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

Cairn shown on survey.

Newman, P., 2013, Fernworthy Forest Sites Survey (Un-published). SDV351708.

Newman, P., 2013, The Archaeology of Fernworthy Forest, Dartmoor, Devon, 36, Fig. 30 (Report - Survey). SDV351784.

Low elliptical mound, 8.0 metres by 7.0 metres and between 10 and 20 centimetres high may be identified as a probable cairn at the northern end of the hut settlement. It has a flattish top with a smaller mound just south of centre. Offset to the east is a rectangular pit while in the south-east sector is a trench possibly from the 1900 excavation. There is also a second smaller cutting on the western end.

English Heritage, 2014, National Heritage List for England, 1017986 (National Heritage List for England). SDV355683.

[Part of] unenclosed stone hut circle settlement, two cairns and section of field system 330m north east of Hemstone Rocks. The cairns lie immediately north of the settlement and both were partly excavated by the Dartmoor Exploration Committee in 1901. The western structure is a ring cairn and survives as a 6.2m diameter central area surrounded by a 0.5m wide and 0.4m high bank. The second cairn lies close to the first and survives as an 8m diameter and 0.8m high mound, with two separate pits cut into its surface. These pits are probably the result of the work carried out by the Dartmoor Exploration Committee.

Ordnance Survey, 2023, Mastermap 2023 (Cartographic). SDV365227.

Feature shown on modern mapping.

Horner, B., 23/11/1992, Cairn at Hemstone Rocks (Personal Comment). SDV245734.

Possible that Turner has provided an alternative identification for one of the hut cirlces but if so, then it is unclear which one.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6216 - Condition Surveys of Ancient Monuments on Forestry Commission Land
• EDV6203 - Archaeological Survey of Fernworthy Forest
• EDV7389 - Fernworthy Forest condition survey 1996
• EDV7410 - Fernworthy Forest condition survey 1992
• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project

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