See important guidance on the use of this record.

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

Summary

Probable remains of a hut circle; this feature has previously been identified as a cairn. One of several associated with settlement site north of Muddilake Brook.

Location

Protected Status

• SHINE: Bronze Age enclosure with hut circles and field system at Smith Hill and Muddilake with late medieval or later enclosure banks or field system and streamworking along the brook to the west

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX67NW116
• National Monuments Record: SX67NW56
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 442677
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 442828
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX67NW/44

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• HUT CIRCLE (Bronze Age - 2200 BC to 701 BC)

Full description

Worth, R. H., 1939, 58th Report of the Barrow Committee, 69 (Article in Serial). SDV266637.

Muddy Lakes newtake between Smith Hill and Two Bridges. A ruined cairn with one side stone of a kistvaen. There is another cairn nearby, but so robbed as to be reduced to a marginal ring. Other details: Plate 3, figure 1.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950, SX67NW56 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV266640.

(31/08/1950) Remains of a cairn, 10.5 metres in diameter, 0.25 metres high, retaining circle of turf-covered stones. The mound has been completely robbed and only a few stones remain in the interior. No trace of cist.

Royal Air Force, 1964, 6399, 032-33 (Aerial Photograph). SDV228504.

Other details: F62.

National Monuments Record, 1969, NMR SX6373, 1/137-154 (Aerial Photograph). SDV258005.

Grinsell, L. V., 1978, Dartmoor Barrows, 154 (Article in Serial). SDV273224.

(Site visited 15/5/1976) Traces of cairn with central slab, probably side-slab of cist. Diameter 6.0 meters, height is slight.

National Monuments Record, 1979, SF1509, 252-255 (Aerial Photograph). SDV346618.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1979, SX67NW56 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV346893.

(22/12/1979) On a slight south east slope at 358m OD and within a field system represented by crop marks (SX 67 NW 116) are two earth and stone circular banks. One at SX 62657519 has a level interior measuring 7.7m in diameter with a complete perimeter bank between 0.6m and 2.0m wide and up to 0.3m high. There is no sign of a cist or any internal stone.
The second, at SX 62757519, has a slightly sloping interior 10.0m in diameter, a bank 1.5m wide and 0.3m high, with a 3.3m gap in the south east. Both circles are covered with long coarse grass, but the banks seem to have a stone content although the interiors are clear of stone.
The circles and the field system show up well as crop marks on the low level NMR air photographs, though the field system is not traceable on the ground. This, together with the situation, a very low, broad spur, suggests that the circles represent huts and not robbed cairns. (For plan see SX 67 NW 59).
Surveyed at 1:10000 and at 1:2500 on MSD.

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

This 'cairn' seems to be an incorporate part of an agglomerated enclosure (PRN 28590) which would suggest it is a hut circle. Visible on National Monuments Record 1969 and 1979 aerial photographs.

Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England, 1987-1993, Duchy Farms Project Survey Visit, M. J. Fletcher (Report - Survey). SDV350839.

(01/08/1989) Bronze Age settlement site, with four identified hut circles and associated fields. The circles and the field system show up well as cropmarks on the low level National Monuments Record aerial photographs though the field system is not traceable on the ground. This, together with the situation, a very low broad spur, suggests that the circles represent huts and not robbed cairns.

Turner, J. R., 1990, Ring Cairns, Stone Circles and Related Monuments on Dartmoor, 67 (Article in Serial). SDV229817.

Ring cairn, Muddilake West. Stone ring 7.0 meters internal diameter with bank 1.0 meters wide and 0.3 meters high. Other details: A21.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Two - The North, 63 (Monograph). SDV219155.

Hut circle depicted on Butler's map. Other details: Map 29, 9.

Historic England, 2021-2022, NRHE to HER website, Accessed 07/03/2022 (Website). SDV364039.

(1989) A hut circle, not a cairn circle. This site is now incorporated in SX 67 NW 116, (but without the transference of sources 1 to 5).

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8640 - Spaders and Muddilake and Smith Hill Newtakes, Duchy Farms Survey
• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project

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