Part of Eylesbarrow Reave

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. Elaborate complexes of fields and field boundaries are some of the major features of the Dartmoor landscape. They have important implications for studying Prehistoric land divisions and communal systems of land-holding, not just in this region but also nationally. Eylesbarrow Reave is a major watershed reave in the South Dartmoor system. This part is immediately associated with a cairn and is within a few hundred metres of several ceremonial and funerary monuments.

Details

The Dartmoor Reaves are part of a highly elaborate and extensive system of Prehistoric land division, introduced some time around 1700 BC. The reaves consist of simple linear stone and earth banks used to mark out discrete territories, some of which are tens of kilometres in area. The systems are defined by parallel, contour and watershed reaves, dividing the lower land from the grazing zones of the higher moor. Eylesbarrow Reave is a watershed reave which separates the watershed of the Plym from that of the Meavy. It extends from the Plym at Cadworthy Wood to the summit of Eylesbarrow, a distance of approximately 6km. Though the reave can be traced from end to end, there are now gaps along its length which result in its preservation in separate sections of unequal length. This part emerges a few metres from the enclosure of Brisworthy Plantation, the building of which probably incorporates stone from the reave, and it runs north-east up the western slope of Ringmoor Down for a distance of c.300m. It is truncated at a gap which co-incides with the position of a cairn on the south-east side of the reave. The reave is composed of small stones and earth and is up to 2m in width and 0.4m in height. It is wider and higher at the south-western end, though this, and ditching along the south-east side and end is probably the product of later modification and work on the plantation intake. A recent track also crosses the south-western end. A stone alignment and cairn lie c.500m to the south-east of the reave.

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:

10629

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Fleming, A, The Dartmoor Reaves, (1988)

Other
SX56NE-278, SX56NE-278, (1990)

End of official list entry

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