Stone alignment and cairn south-east of Western Beacon

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. Stone alignments provide rare evidence of ceremonial or ritual practices on the Moor during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age. The alignment south-east of Western Beacon and north-west of Cantrell is particularly significant because it is connected with a cairn and situated in an area which contains many funerary monuments.

Details

Stone alignments or stone rows consist of upright stones set in a single line or in two or more parallel lines, up to several hundred metres in length. They frequently lead to burial monuments such as small cairns, cists and barrows and are therefore thought to have had a ceremonial function. The 70 or so examples known on Dartmoor were probably constructed in the Late Neolithic period (around 2500 BC) This double stone alignment, to the south-east of Western Beacon and north- west of Cantrell, is approximately 43 m. long, it is orientated north-east/ south-west, ending at a cairn at the northern end and truncated at the south by the line of a former railway. There are 12 stones up to 0.75 m. high in the southern row and 6 up to 0.4 m. high in the northern row. The rows are on average 2 m. apart and the stones lie at 1 to 4 m. spacings with several gaps in the sequence. The cairn is 7 m. in diameter and 0.3 m. high, with a hollow in the centre suggesting that it has been robbed in the past.

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:

10550

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings in Dartmoor Barrows, (1978), 172
Grinsell, L V, Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings in Dartmoor Barrows, (1978)
Emmett, D D, Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings in Stone Rows: The Traditional View Reconsidered, Vol. 37, (1979), 111

Other
Devon County SMR (SX65NE-007),
Devon County SMR (SX65NE-007-01),

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