Cairn with a cist south-east of Plym Steps

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1012790
Date first listed:: 14-Mar-1962

The Missing Pieces Project

Share your view of unique places.

Add your contribution

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1012790
Date first listed:: 14-Mar-1962
Date of most recent amendment:: 22-Sep-1992

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Devon
District:: South Hams (District Authority)
Parish:: Shaugh Prior
National Park:: DARTMOOR
National Grid Reference:: SX 60421 67101

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. Round cairns are prehistoric funerary monuments dating to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They were constructed as earthen or rubble mounds, the latter predominating in areas of upland Britain where such raw materials were locally available in abundance. Round cairns may cover single or multiple burials and are sometimes surrounded by an outer ditch. Often occupying prominent locations, they are a major visual element in the modern landscape. Their considerable variation in form and longevity as a monument type provide important information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of protection. Dartmoor provides one of the best preserved and most dense concentrations of round cairns in south- western Britain.

This cairn with a cist is a well preserved example and occupies a prominent position on the hill slope. Its relationship to other monuments indicates the wealth of evidence relating to the occupation and to the ritual side of life on this part of the Moor.

Details

This cairn with a cist lies on a south-west facing slope above the confluence of the River Plym and Langcombe Brook. The cairn is 5.5m in diameter and has a retaining kerb of eight stones up to 0.2m in height. The coverstone lies on the east side of the cist. The cist is irregular in shape measuring 0.7m in length on the east side and 0.8m in length on the west side and 0.3m in width at the south end and 0.6m in width at the north end. It is 0.6m in depth. A similar cairn with a cist lies on the opposite side of the Langcombe Brook and there are enclosures with hut circles and a cairn 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:: 10707
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Other
SX 66 NW-048, (1990)

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.