Stone alignment on Conies Down

Reasons for Designation

Dartmoor is the largest expanse of open moorland in southern Britain and, because of exceptional conditions of preservation, it is also one of the most complete examples of an upland relict landscape in the whole country. The great wealth and diversity of archaeological remains provide direct evidence for human exploitation of the Moor from the early prehistoric period onwards. The well-preserved and often visible relationship between settlement sites, major land boundaries, trackways, ceremonial and funerary monuments as well as later industrial remains, gives significant insights into successive changes in the pattern of land use through time. Stone alignments or stone rows consist of upright stones set in single file or in avenues of two or more parallel lines, up to several hundred metres in length. They are often physically linked to burial monuments, such as small cairns, cists and barrows, and are considered to have had an important ceremonial function. The Dartmoor alignments mostly date from the Late Neolithic period (c.2400-2000 BC). Some eighty examples, most of them on the outer Moor, provide over half the recorded national population. Due to their comparative rarity and longevity as a monument type, all surviving examples are considered nationally important, unless very badly damaged.

The stone alignment on Conies Down survives comparatively well in a remote part of the Moor. It is the highest known example on Dartmoor and survives in an area with deep peat deposits which have protected the monument and its associated contemporary ground surface and provide a valuable source of environmental information concerning the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed and used.

Details

This monument includes a stone alignment situated on a gentle south-facing slope of Conies Down overlooking the valley of Conies Down Water. The stone alignment is 173m long and includes a double row of twenty-one stones with an average height of 0.26m. There is an average distance of 1.9m between the two rows and they are aligned 3 degrees east of north. The spacing between the stones is intermittent as a result of either partial robbing or some of the smaller ones being buried below the present day ground surface. There are no visible terminals associated with this row. A hollow way, known as the Lichway, passes the monument a short distance to the south. This trackway leads across Dartmoor towards Lydford and is known to have been used to carry the dead to the parish church in the early medieval period.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

22220

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Butler, J, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities, (1991)
Worth, R H, Worth's Dartmoor, (1981)

Other
National Archaeological Record, SX57NE5,

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