Cairn with a cist north-east of Drizzlecombe

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1010653
Date first listed:: 25-Feb-1992

The Missing Pieces Project

Share your view of unique places.

Add your contribution

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1010653
Date first listed:: 25-Feb-1992

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Devon
District:: West Devon (District Authority)
Parish:: Sheepstor
National Park:: DARTMOOR
National Grid Reference:: SX 59228 67474

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 provides 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.

Round cairns are prehistoric funerary monuments dating to the Bronze Age (c.2500-1000 BC) . They were constructed as earthen or rubble mounds, the latter predominating in areas of upland Britain where such raw materials were locally available in abundance. Round cairns may cover single or multiple burials and are sometimes surrounded by an outer ditch. Often occupying prominent locations, they are a major visual element in the modern landscape. Their considerable variation in form and longevity as a monument type provide important information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of protection. Dartmoor provides one of the best preserved and densest concentrations of round cairns in south-western Britain.

Although this cairn with a cist has been partly excavated, its overall structure remains intact with the pre-burial landsurface preserved beneath the mound. It also occupies a prominent position close to the ceremonial monument complex at Drizzlecombe.

Details

This cairn with a cist lies on a south-west-facing slope north-east of Drizzlecombe and above the Sheepstor leat. The mound is 4m in diameter and remains to a height of 0.25m with part of a retaining kerb on the north-west side. The cist is orientated south-east/north-west and is 1.18m in length 0.9m in width and 0.6m in depth. It was excavated in 1914, when charcoal was found in it. It lies within a few hundred metres of the complex of stone alignments, cairns and enclosures in Drizzlecombe.

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:: 10714
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Other
SX56NE-068, REF SX56NE-068, (1990)

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.