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Summary

One of three cairns to the north of Hemstone Rocks excavated by the Dartmoor Exploration Committee in 1900. Exact location unknown.

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

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68NW/3/1
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68SW/2
• Old SAM County Ref: 960

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.
Exact location of cairn is unknown.

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 17 inches deep. A flint flake is recorded from a cist and flakes also from a cairn.

Brailsford, J. W., 1938, Bronze Age Stone Monuments of Dartmoor, 450 (Article in Serial). SDV304210.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950-1952, SX68SW27 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV245678.

Site visit 22nd may 1950. This area under dense afforestation and any chance of finding these cairns has disappeared.

Grinsell, L. V., 1978, Dartmoor Barrows, 145 / Lydford 17c (Article in Serial). SDV273224.

Cairn, north-east of Hemstone Rocks. Grinsell refers to a cairn at approx above ngr. Contained a pit in which were burnt bones, wood, charcoal and two burnt flints.

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.

Gerrard, S., 1993-2010, Monument Protection Programme Alternative Action Report, 2002 (Report - non-specific). SDV145710.

Monument MDV48857 (originally located at SX649883) considered under the Monument Protection Programme. The grid reference given in the record (SX64808830 ) places the cairn a short distance to the south-west of the Buttern Stone circle. The description however places the site within grid square sx 6483. This cairn is probably within SAM 28674. Not scheduled at given grid reference because nothing there.

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 which cairn is which.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds

• FDV5906 - FLAKE (Early Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 4000 BC to 701 BC?)
• FDV5905 - HUMAN REMAINS (Early Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 4000 BC to 701 BC)

Associated Events

• EDV6203 - Archaeological Survey of Fernworthy Forest
• EDV7389 - Fernworthy Forest condition survey 1996
• EDV7410 - Fernworthy Forest condition survey 1992
• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project

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