Unenclosed stone hut circle settlement on the western edge of Lee Moor

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. This unenclosed stone hut circle settlement is a well-preserved example and provides important evidence of how early farming and stock-rearing communities lived on the Moor.

Details

Low stone walls or banks enclosing a circular internal floor area form the remains of timber and turf or thatch-roofed dwellings occupied by farmers of the Prehistoric period. They may occur singly or in larger groups and were sometimes built within a surrounding boundary bank or enclosure. On Dartmoor, the long tradition of building stone-based round houses can be traced back to the second millennium BC, probably from 1700 BC onwards. This unenclosed stone hut circle settlement lies above a small scarp on a south-west facing slope at the western end of Lee Moor, north-east of Little Trowlesworthy Tor. It consists of at least nine hut circles which range from 3m to 7m in diameter with walls of stone and earth 1m in width and up to 0.6m in height. Two pairs of huts are conjoined, the rest are single and there are possible entrances to the south in some huts. There are enclosures and other hut circles in the vicinity.

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:

10692

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
Devon County SMR SX56SE-276,

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