Enclosure with hut circles north of Bala Brook intake

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 enclosure with hut circles north of Bala Brook is a well-preserved example and provides important evidence of how early farming and stock-rearing communities lived on the Moor. In addition, the tinners' caches give valuable information on the later industrial exploitation of the area.

Details

Low stone walls or banks enclosing a circular internal floor area from 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 enclosure lies above the north bank of Bala Brook, close to another and to two conjoined hut circles which lie between the enclosures. The enclosure is roughly semi- circular in shape and is c.0.75ha in area. The wall, incorporating some large boulders, is up to 0.75m in height and up to 4m in width, it narrows along the straighter, incomplete side above the stream bank. There are possible entrances at the north-west and south-east and ten hut circles in the enclosure, which is cut by the water intake fence. The huts are up to 12m in diameter with walls up to a metre in height and 2m in thickness, they have entrances on the west or north-west side and some are set into the slope. A tinner's cache has been built into one of the western huts.

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:

10579

Legacy System:

RSM

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