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Summary

The earthwork remains of a stone clearance cairn of probable post-Medieval date. An earthen and stone mound with a diameter of 10.5m and a height of 0.4m. It is much despoiled and appears to have been dug in the centre. There is no trace of a ditch and is covered with turf and heather.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX58SW10
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 440692
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX58SW/30

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• (Former Type) CAIRN (Early Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 4000 BC to 701 BC)
• CLEARANCE CAIRN (Post Medieval to Early 20th Century - 1540 AD (Between) to 1901 AD (Between))

Full description

Royal Air Force, 1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1995, 2383-4 (Aerial Photograph). SDV224714.

Air photographs show what appears to be two hut circles.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950, SX58SW10 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV214656.

(23/10/1950) An earthen and stone mound with a diameter of 10.5m and a height of 0.4m. It is much despoiled and appears to have been dug in the centre. There is no trace of a ditch and is covered with turf and heather. The condition is fair.

Ordnance Survey, 1963-1996, 1963-1996 National Grid OS Metric (Cartographic). SDV350058.

Grinsell, L. V., 1978, Dartmoor Barrows, 144 (Article in Serial). SDV273224.

(06/08/1976) Truncated cairn, shown on Ordnance Survey maps as 'mound'. Diameter 10.5m, height 0.4m.

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

Recorded.

Turner, J. R., 1990, Ring Cairns, Stone Circles and Related Monuments on Dartmoor, 68/A52 (Article in Serial). SDV229817.

Ring cairn, internal diam 5m, with bank 1.5m wide and 0.4m high. Interior infilled to 0.2m below bank top (turner).

Gerrard, S., 1993-2010, Monument Protection Programme Alternative Action Report (Report - non-specific). SDV145710.

(-/-/2002) Cairns east of High Down
A 2.1m wide circular bank standing up to 0.7m high surrounds a 6.2m diameter internal. Some stones protrude through the turf in the centre of the building. Situated on a slight terrace towards the upper end of a relatively steep slope. The structure appears to built on a platform. The surrounding area is covered in narrow ridge and furrow. This structure is much more likely to be a stone hut circle rather than a ring cairn.
If a hut it survives well, but any associated archaeology has been removed by the later ridge and furrow.
It is likely that this is either the remnants of a once more extensive settlement or an isolated hut. The former is more likely and if so the settlement as a whole has almost certainly been nearly destroyed. For this reason, without further information this site is not currently of national importance.

Historic England, 2021-2022, NRHE to HER website, Accessed 23/11/2021 (Website). SDV364039.

(09/11/2004) The mound depicted on the Ordnance Survey 1:10000 scale mapping (1965) and described by Grinsell (1978) is largely obscured by gorse. It is not of prehistoric origin as it sits upon a number of narrow cultivation ridges associated with the post-Medieval field system in this area. It is more likely to be a relatively recent stone clearance heap. A similar feature (440693) lies 140m to the west (citing Probert SAJ 09-NOV-2004 EH Field Investigation).

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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