Guide to Dartmoor Cists
This listing started with the list compiled by C.E.B. Dixon when he took over writing the Barrow Committee reports following the death of R.H. Worth in 1950. It was an attempt to collate the cists listed in all the previous Barrow Committee reports largely compiled by Richard Hansford Worth and others from the Dartmoor Exploration Committee with the addition of a few that had been discovered subsequently. There were 102 cists listed in the 70th Barrow Committee report with cists numbered 103 and 106-109 added in the 72nd and 73rd reports. The original list included Corringdon Ball (26) and Cuckoo Ball (29) which are more properly classified as chambered tombs. The Dixon list was extended to 130 entries by Grinsell in his 1978 Dartmoor Barrows survey (filling the inexplicably skipped numbers 104 & 105 in the process). A number of cists discovered in more recent decades have been added including those listed by Turner in 1990 and a few taken from Butler (1991-7). The Dixon number for records after 130 merely represents the order they have been added to the database.
In total there are over 150 entries in the Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks database which covers all of the known visible cists on Dartmoor with the exception of a few that are very fragmentary. Butler lists 187 cists including the sites of cists that have been removed (Butler Vol. 5 Appendix 5. pp.279-280) and a very comprehensive listing of over 200 cists, or possible cists, can be found on Prehistoric Monuments of Dartmoor. Butler points out that cists are widespread and unknown examples were discovered in 12% of the cairns excavated by the Dartmoor Exploration committee which suggests potentially 100 or more cists remain concealed.
A table of these cists without photos and additional notes is available: Table of Dartmoor Cists
Bibliography & references
Butler, Jeremy, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities, vol.1: The East, (1991)
Butler, Jeremy, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities, vol.2: The North,(1991)
Butler, Jeremy, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities, vol.3: The South-West, (1994)
Butler, Jeremy, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities, vol.4: The South-East, (1993)
Butler, Jeremy, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Vol. 5. - The Second Millennium B.C. (Devon Books, 1997)
Dixon, C.E.B., Seventieth Report on Barrows, T.D.A. Vol. 84 pp.249-253 (1952)
Dixon, C.E.B., Seventy-second Report on Barrows, T.D.A. Vol. 88 pp.222-224 (1956)
Dixon, C.E.B., Seventy-third Report on Barrows, T.D.A. Vol. 90 pp.230-233 (1958)
Grinsell, L.V., Dartmoor Barrows, Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings No. 36 (1978)
Newman, Phil The Field Archaeology of Dartmoor (English Heritage, 2011)
Pettit, Paul. Prehistoric Dartmoor (David & Charles, 1974)
Turner, J.R., Ring Cairns, stone circles and related monuments on Dartmoor, D.A.S.P. No. 48 pp. 27-86 (1990)
Worth, R.H. Worth's Dartmoor (David & Charles, 1971)
Worth, R.H., Nineteenth Report of the Barrow Committee, T.D.A. Vol. 32 pp.46-54 (1900)
External Links & Resources
The NMRs can be searched on the English Heritage Pastscape website. The simplest method is to use a location search and reduce the range to 250m to narrow the results (increase to 500m if site not found). The Megalithic Portal is another great resource for looking up sites. A detailed listing of over 200 cists can be found on the Prehistoric Monuments of Dartmoor website.
Pastscape: National Monuments Records
Prehistoric Monuments of Dartmoor: A List of Dartmoor Cists
Megalithic Portal: Search Page
Legendary Dartmoor: Dartmoor Kistvaens
Listing of some of the Dartmoor Cists
About the Database Listings
Details of archaeological sites used to be kept in the Sites and Monuments Records (SMRs). These are now held in National Monument Records (NMRs) maintained by English Heritage although these in turn are being merged into Historic Environment Records (HERs). The NMRs contains details of the site and will often include field notes, a limited bibliography and other useful information. Another rich source of such information is Bill Radcliffe's Prehistoric Monuments of Dartmoor (PMD) website. The records below were compiled independently from books and journals and then matched to the NMR records and then cross-referenced with any corresponding PMD records to ensure accuracy. Each record has a link to corresponding NMR and PMD records, a link to the location on the Ordnance Survey map, a photo (if available) and a link to relevant coverage on Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks and a link giving a listing of nearby sites. The HER records are not included as they do not yet have much information but they can be looked up via the PMD records. The author would like to thank Bill Radcliffe for the helpful correspondence whilst checking records. See also: Database and Web Search Tools
- NMR = Pastscape National Monument Record
- HER = Historic Environment Record
- PMD = Prehistoric Monuments of Dartmoor Record
- DPD = Discover Prehistoric Dartmoor page number
- Short Name is named used in GPS listings
Default listing is by Dixon list, click here to order instead by: Site Name, OS, Dixon Number