Discover Prehistoric Dartmoor by William Lethbridge

Discover Prehistoric Dartmoor is a magnificent tour of Dartmoor including photos of just about all of the visible prehistoric cists and stone rows. This book is a gazetteer of the prehistoric sites on Dartmoor and in total over 300 are featured which is an outstanding achievement. Click here to jump to table of the DPD sites

Lethbridge clearly started taking photos of the sites back in the 1980s if not before. The photos of the multiple stone rows and circles at Corringdon Ball are fascinating as they date back to a time when grazing was far more widespread on Dartmoor and there was less vegetation cover. In the last decade very little can be seen of the small stones that make up this site. It has improved a bit with recent work to clear vegetation. Lethbridge mentions a few times this change in vegetation cover referring to photos taken before the last big Foot and Mouth outbreak.

The layout of the book follows the river catchments around Dartmoor. Typically there will be a diagram of a small area populated with the rows and cists that then appear on the following pages. Combined with an OS map it should be possible to plan walks to look at these sites. The presence of such comprehensive photos means it should be easier to recognise the sites. Some of the prehistoric sites on Dartmoor are small, often hidden amongst lots of vegetation and rock clitter so having a good idea of what a site looks like helps enormously when trying to find it!

Lethbridge has not only documented sites he has also discovered a few too. In 1992 he discovered the stone row on Shell Top. In 2004 he also discovered the two cists on Giant's Hill. In the this book a few other possible discoveries are included (see additional notes below). There are a couple of weaknesses with this book. The first is a minor irritation and that is the insistence on using imperial measurements. The second and more important problem is the lack of OS grid references and the poor indexing and lack of cross-referencing with the existing literature. However, hopefully that problem is fixed with the table below - which should make it much easier to combine the information in both to plan walks. Lethbridge is to be congratulated on producing such a lovely guide to the prehistoric sites on Dartmoor.

Guide to using the Table

The table below gives the page numbers where primary coverage of any site is to be found in the Discover Prehistoric Dartmoor book. So if you are looking at page 112 and want more information on the cist at the bottom of the page you can look it up and see it is listed as the Chittaford Down Platform Cairn Circle and Cist. Clicking on the name in the table will open up a site page displaying a photo, if one is available, and a short description. It can be seen that this site was excavated in 1900 and "an archer's polished stone wrist guard was found". The OS grid reference is available from the site page or from the table and clicking on it will give a list of sites within 2 km which will include their location on the OS map. The clicking on the + or - signs on the map will allow zooming in and out and the diagram in the book can be compared with the map. Directly below the map is a drop down to change the range of the listing. It could, for example, be upped to 5km or reduced down to 250m. Also in the table are links to entries in the NMR and HER which will include further information about the site. The site page will also link to the entry on Bill Radcliffe's Prehistoric Monuments of Dartmoor website which gives a very useful bibliography. In this case it is clear that there was coverage in the Transactions of the Devonshire Association see Seventh Report of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee, T.D.A. Vol. 33 pp.130-138 (1901). The hyperlink just given here was found by looking at the listings for Articles and Books on the Resources page which includes most of the articles in the Transactions from that time.

Conversely, by ordering the table by Site Name and Type it is really quick and easy to look up any site in the book. The index in the book is unhelpfully ordered by river catchment. If you are looking for coverage of the Stennen Hill cist the index in the book would require you to associate it with the River Dart and then search all the "cairn and cist" entries! For those planning to delve into those areas such as around Langcombe Brook where there are numerous cists then the photos in the book should be really helpful in terms of knowing what it is you are looking for. It will probably take years for this website to have such full photographic coverage of sites! The DPD field is also included in the Table of Stone Rows and the Table of Cists and all other database driven listings.

Additional Notes

The notes that follow were made whilst compiling the table below. Typically the notes have been made because it is a reference to something that has stood out for this author to investigate further, typically because it is unknown and doesn't appear in the database. There are around 50 alledged sites for cists that could be added to the database that are listed on Bill Radcliffe's Prehistoric Monuments of Darmoor website. Most of these are of sites that are either dubious or no longer visible or so fragmentary that it does not seem worth including. A small number of entries have now been added to the database to allow cross-referencing with this book. A few more entries might get added in the future!

• p.30 The three boulders above Deancombe Brook (presumably a bit north of the Outholme cist SX57996827.
• p.31-2 Seven mounds near Yellowmead Cairn circle.
• p.33-34 Brisworthy cup stone "Down a muddy lane at Brisworthy Hamlets" (added to database).
• p.37 Legis Tor Ossuary. A curious arrangement of two massive slabs discovered by Lethbridge. He suggests is could have a funereal purpose, could be an ossuary.(added to database).
• p.42 Drizzlecombe D (4) Cist SX 595673 (?) [NGR given as SX595687 in the text but that is 1km north of the mark on the diagram] and Drizzlecombe E (5) Cist SX 597673 (?) (possible cists, diagram p.38, photos p.42)
• p.47-48 Giants Hill W Cist and Giants Hill E Cist SX596667 (possible cist)(added to database).
• p.52 Hentor Brook (possible cist near Willings Walls Reave, no NMR or HER records) SX 5848 6557 (guesstimate on NGR)
• p.54 Stone circle / stone enclosure - diagram p.54 10m diameter (nothing on NMR or HER - many hut circles and enclosures in vicinity) SX577645 (guesstimate on NGR)
• p.54-6 Hawk's Tor Cromlech / Rock Shelter (added to database).
• p.59-60 Chambered Cairn also possible cist - diagram p.55
• p.81 SX663603 (?) Cist? in diagram below spring no explanation in text. Located SW of Lower Glassscombe cist.
• p.85 SX67736346 Cist? In cairn, one of pair, at end of Black Tor (Avon) Stone row. See updated comment on Black Tor (Avon) Stone row.
• p.89 Middle Pupers - odd stones see photo
• p.90-91 Unidentified Cist (not in Butler, NMR, HER, PDM etc) SX 66637133 photo bottom p 91. (search SX666713)
• p.107 Holmingbeam Cup Stone, near Two Bridges (added to database).
• p.113 Unknown cist. Location SX 638796 ? judging by location on diagram p.112 - central of 3 in approx line. Could be HER: 71274 (SX 639 794) "Radcliffe, W., 2003, Possible cist near a gate in the fence. Internal dimensions 0.6 x 0.45m, orientation NW/SE. Track leading to gate has eroded away the ground on the north-eastern side."
• p.128 Hut Circle on Shapley Common SX 69428206 - included in book as a particularly fine example (added to database).
• p.146 Scorhill Stone Circle, photo of stones in leat that may have come from the circle.
• p.155 Taw valley possible cist and menhir as described by Crossing as being "found among the enclosures and hut circles on the hill above the Small Brook". No indication at all of location, could be around SX630903, maybe Small Brook Cist or Taw Marsh Cist (HER 33597, NMR SX 69 SW 41)

Table of Discover Prehistoric Dartmoor

The table below lists the sites that appear in the book Discover Prehistoric Dartmoor (DPD) matched to the entries in the Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks database. Click on the table headers to get listings ordered by DPD page number, Site Name, Short Name or OS number. The listings default to list by DPD page number. Clicking on the site name will open a site page with a large photo where one is available. Clicking on OS links will list nearby sites and clicking on the NMR or HER number will open the relevant record in a new window.

Page last updated 25/07/16