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Summary

A well-preserved kerb cairn and cist lie on the broad ridge crest 550 metres east of Hookney Tor. The kerb, most stones of which remain upright, measures 5.6 metres in diameter and contains a turf-covered stony mound 0.6 metres high. Some turf and stone of the cairn material has spread outside the kerb. Several upright stones immediately to the south of the cairn are suggestive of a further ring of stone.
The centre of the cairn is occupied by an intact cist oriented roughly north-west to south-east and measuring 1.1 metre by 0.6 metres and 0.6 metres deep. The three original coverstones lie either in situ or very close to their original positions (2000 survey data).

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1020009: Cairn and cist 430m north east of Grimspound

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX78SW10
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 445636
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX78SW/22
• Old SAM County Ref: 859
• Old SAM Ref: 24099
• Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division: SX78SW10

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CIST (Bronze Age - 2200 BC to 701 BC (Between))
• KERB CAIRN (Early Bronze Age to Cold War - 2200 BC to 1991 AD (Between))

Full description

AM, Untitled Source (Report - Survey). SDV304035.

Vis=13/1/1971(ancient monuments) round cairn.(diameter 5.5m, height 610mm, cist length 1.2m, width 915mm) well preserved retaining wall (12 stones visible, others clearly marked under the turf). There is a rectangular cist in the centre. The four wall stones are intact but the capstone has been moved to the north-west and the cist robbed. Measurements given above. N. B. Ordnance Survey give an almost identical barrow at sx70418144. This is almost certainly the same site (am).

Ancient Monuments, Untitled Source (Report - Survey). SDV304041.

Vis=estimated -/-/2000 (ancient monuments) cairn + cist 430m ne of Grimspound. Cairn survives as 5.6m diameter ring of edge set slabs up to 0.62m high, surrounding a 0.6m high mound.
Cist is slightly s of cairn's centre, and is 1.2m by 0.55m by 0.45m deep. Three slabs which partly obscure the cist represent the coverstones. Slight mounds of spoil from earlier partial excavation lie adjacent to cairn on ne + s sides (am).

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV304049.

Des=Gibson, a. M. /pers comm to SMR 03/09/1987. Vis=-/8/1987 (Gibson) capstone has recently been removed and replaced (Gibson).

Baring Gould, S., 1894, 1st Report of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee: The Exploration of Grimspound, 115, 118 (Article in Serial). SDV304196.

A cairn, not far from the source of Grimslake, surrounded by a circle of stones; some of the stones are upright and some are fallen. "These are perhaps indications of a second circle surrounding the cairn". The cairn contains the ruins of a
robbed cist.

Worth, R. N., 1894, The Stone Rows of Dartmoor. Part 3., 299-300 (Article in Serial). SDV234309.

Worth (1894) records Burnard's suggestion of a stone row here.

Worth, R. H., 1902, 21st Report of the Barrow Committee, 122 (Article in Serial). SDV20971.

The monument was originally a kistvaen covered by a cairn, surrounded by at least one circle of upright stones, with traces of a second circle, cist contained charcoal.

Worth, R. H., 1935, 54th Report on Barrows, 77 (Article in Serial). SDV346265.

Royal Air Force, 1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1824, 3040 (Aerial Photograph). SDV352344.

Grinsell, L. V., 1978, Dartmoor Barrows, 158, North Bovey 3 (Article in Serial). SDV273224.

(24/07/1972) Hookney Down. SX 7041 8116 Diameter 9.7m and height 0.4m. Cairn with retaining circle 5.9m diameter, enclosing cist placed south-east by north-west.

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

Barrow visible and recorded.

Turner, J. R., 1990, Ring Cairns, Stone Circles and Related Monuments on Dartmoor, 47 74/e18 (Article in Serial). SDV229817.

Platform circle. Ring of kerb stones, 5.5m internal diameter, enclosing flat-topped cairn 0.4m high with central cist. One or two stones in the kerb stand well above the others.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume One - The East, Map 20 (Monograph). SDV299725.

Depicted by Butler.

Newman, P., 2002, Headland Warren and the Birch Tor and Vitifer Mines (Report - Survey). SDV363213.

(Visited 10/10/2000) SX 70418116. A well-preserved kerb cairn and cist lie on the broad ridge crest 550 metres east of Hookney Tor. The kerb, most stones of which remain upright, measures 5.6 metres in diameter and contains a turf-covered stony mound 0.6 metres high. Some turf and stone of the cairn material has spread outside the kerb. Several upright stones immediately to the south of the cairn are suggestive of a further ring of stone.
The centre of the cairn is occupied by an intact cist oriented roughly north-west to south-east and measuring 1.1 metre by 0.6 metres and 0.6 metres deep. The three original coverstones lie either in situ or very close to their original positions.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV7139 - Headland Warren and the Birch Tor and Vitifer Mines Survey (Ref: A1/20/2001, A1/34/2002)

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