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. Stone
alignments provide rare evidence of ceremonial or ritual practices on the
Moor during the Late Neolithic and the Bronze Age. This alignment, south-
west of Glasscombe Corner is connected with two cairns and associated with
several others in the immediate vicinity.
Details
Stone alignments or stone rows consist of upright stones set in a single
line or in two or more parallel lines, up to several hundred metres in
length. They frequently lead to burial monuments such as small cairns, cists
and barrows and are therefore thought to have had a ceremonial function. The
70 or so examples known on Dartmoor were probably constructed in the Late
Neolithic period (around 2500 BC). This alignment and its associated cairns
lie south-west of Glasscombe Corner and the West Glaze Brook, on the lower
eastern slope of Piles Hill. The alignment runs south-west/north-east for
174 metres down across the slope and is single for about one third of its
length and double for the southern two thirds. It has a cairn at either end,
the northern one surviving as a retaining kerb 10m in diameter and the
southern cairn being 6m in diameter and 0.4m in height. Three more cairns
are associated with the northern end of the alignment, they range from 7m to
9m in diameter and are all 0.4m in height, two have traces of retaining
kerbs.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System number:
10557
Legacy System:
RSM
Sources
Books and journals Other
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.
End of official list entry
