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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: SX67NW55
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 442674
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 442828
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX67NW/45

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.

(Site visited in August 1938) A ruined cairn 6.0 metres in diameter, with one side stone of a cist, 1.5 metres long, 0.15 metres thick. Other details: Plate 3, Figure 1.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950, SX67NW55 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV266603.

Remains of a cairn. Remains of retaining circle as a bank of turf-covered stones, 0.25 metres high, with a gap in the south-east side where stones have been robbed. The mound has been completely robbed and there are just a few odd turf-covered stones within the circle. One buried slab in the centre may be a capstone of a cist. One large stone stands in a retaining circle on the south-south-east side. The general condition is poor. Diameter of circle 12.0 metres.

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) Probable ring cairn; large stone on south side of circumference. Interior on natural ground level. Diameter 13.0 meters, height 0.3 meters. Cairn is at Muddilake.

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

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1979, SX67NW55 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV266602.

(22/12/1979) On a slight south east slope at 354m OD within crop marks of a field system (SX 67 NW 116) is a slightly raised level platform 9.5m in diameter, encompassed by a circular earthen bank 2.0m wide and 0.6m high. There is a gap of 3.3m in the south east marked by one large boulder on its south west side. Although it has been assumed to be a cairn it is integrated with the cropmark of a field bank and is more likely to be a robbed hut in common with some others within 150m to the north east.
Surveyed at 1:10000 and at 1:2500 for AO Records.

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 and 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) A hut circle, not a cairn circle. Forms part of settlement. 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, 32, 67 (Article in Serial). SDV229817.

Stone ring, diameter internally 10.5 metres with bank 2.4 metres wide and 0.5 metres high. A 5.0 metre wide entrance on the south side with a stone slab laid on the west side of the entrance. Other details: Figure 7 A38.

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.

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
• EDV8423 - Duchy Farms Project

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