Unenclosed stone hut settlement on the east side of the Erme Valley, north Harford 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 provides direct evidence for human exploitation of the Moor from the early prehistoric period inwards. 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 patterns of land use through time. These five hut circles on northern Harford Moor are a well-preserved example of an unenclosed hut settlement and provide 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 bank or enclosure. On Dartmoor, the long tradition of building stone-based round houses is thought to have begun in the second millennium BC, probably from about 1700 BC onwards. This group of five unenclosed stone hut circles lies high on the east side of the Erme Valley at the northern end of Harford Moor. The huts are set into the slope and range in diameter from 4.5m. to 10m., with walls 1.5 to 2m. thick and up to a metre in height.

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:

10519

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
Devon County SMR (SX 66 SW-042),

End of official list entry

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