Cairn on Weatherdon Hill

Overview

Heritage Category: Scheduled Monument

List Entry Number: 1013309

Date first listed: 07-Oct-1991

Location

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

National Park: DARTMOOR

National Grid Reference: SX 65161 58913

Summary

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

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 large cairn on Weatherdon Hill is a well-preserved example and occupies a prominent position on the brow of a hill, forming part of a series of large, probably high status, cairns of similar construction on hilltops along the eastern side of the Erme Valley. Its relationship to other cairns indicates the wealth of evidence relating to the ritual side of prehistoric life on this part of the Moor.

History

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

Details

Many examples of prehistoric funerary monuments are preserved on Dartmoor, mostly dating to the Bronze Age (c. 2500-500BC). To celebrate or commemorate the dead, mounds of earth or stone were piled in roughly hemispherical shape over the burial, which was sometimes contained in a small rectangular structure, or cist, made of stone slabs. Some monuments also include kerbstones marking the outer edge of the mound and a surrounding ditch. This cairn has a mound of stones built on a stone and earth base the circumference of which projects beyond the stones. It is 20 m. in diameter and approximately 1.5 m. high, and is one of a series of large examples along the ridge between Butterdon Hill and Weatherdon Hill.

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: 10534

Legacy System: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, 'Proc. Devon Arch. Soc.' in Dartmoor Barrows (0305 5795), , Vol. 36, (1978), 140
Other
SX65NE-221,

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 Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.