Unenclosed stone hut settlement south-west of Gutter Tor

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. This site south-west of Gutter Tor is a well-preserved example of an unenclosed hut settlement 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 hut settlement south-west of Gutter Tor consists of six hut circles terraced into the south-facing slope some 500m from the tor. The group is orientated broadly north-west/south-east; four huts are single and two are joined together. The huts range from 7.5m to 10.5m in diameter and the walls, built of small stones and earth, range from 1.5m to 3m in thickness and from 0.5 to 1.5m in height. There are entrances in the southern sides of the huts, one retains its jambs.

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:

10598

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
SX 56 NE 045,

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