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. Cists are small rectangular stone
structures used for burial purposes and date to the Bronze Age. On Dartmoor
they are made up of regular stone slabs forming a box-like structure sometimes
topped by a larger coverstone. Short cists survive as free-standing monuments,
with no enclosing stone and earth cairn. On Dartmoor cists are also associated
with cairns, ring cairns and cairnfield groups, but these free-standing
examples form a separate group in their own right. Their longevity, having
been in use for a millennium or so, provides insight into the range of
ceremonial and ritual practices of the contemporary farming communities. The
Dartmoor examples provide one of the best preserved and most dense
concentrations of this class of monument in south-western Britain and, as
such, a high proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of
protection.
Details
The monument includes a cairn containing a cist situated on a saddle between
Hookney Tor and King Tor overlooking the valley of the Broadaford Brook. The
cairn survives as a 5.6m diameter ring of edge set slabs standing up to 0.62m
high surrounding a 0.6m high mound. The cist is situated slightly south of
the cairn's centre and survives as a 1.2m long by 0.55m wide and 0.45m deep
stone lined pit. Three slabs which partly obscure the cist represent the
original coverstones. Slight mounds of material lying adjacent to the cairn
on the north eastern and southern sides represent spoil thrown out during an
earlier partial excavation.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System number:
24099
Legacy System:
RSM
Sources
Books and journals
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.
End of official list entry
