Two fallen standing stones east of Hangershell Rock

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 and standing stones provide rare evidence of ceremonial or ritual practices on the Moor during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age. The stones east of Hangershell Rock are particularly significant as they are associated with a group of ceremonial and funerary monuments on Butterdon Hill which includes a stone alignment, a cist and several cairns.

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). These two recumbent stones east of Hangershell Rock are considered to be part of a stone alignment, which may not have been completed, the two megaliths are 55m apart, with traces of smaller stones between them. The western stone is 6.4m long and has a maximum width of 1.93m and a thickness of 0.76m, the eastern stone is 5.4m long and has a maximum width of 0.7m and a thickness of 0.5m. They lie in an area of grassland largely devoid of stone, and are orientated east/west towards the Butterdon stone alignment 250m to the west.

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:

10549

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Davidson, C J, Seabrook, R A G, Proc. Devon Arch. Soc. in Stone Rings on South East Dartmoor, Vol. 31, (1973)

Other
Devon County SMR (SX 65 NE 004),

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