Guidance for walkers: The monuments featured in this database are archaeological treasures and need to be protected and preserved - please do not disturb any sites. Please check access and firing times before visiting sites, not all sites listed are on open access land. Firing ranges and boundaries of open access areas are marked on the OL28 OS Dartmoor Explorer map. Please stick to the country code and consider giving support to the numerous agencies that help to keep Dartmoor a fabulous natural and historic environment!
About the database listings: In all listings clicking on the photo or the site name will open a page for the site with a larger photo and further details from the database. The database now has over 6680 records covering nearly all publicly listed sites on Dartmoor including around 4800 round houses. This level of detail is of interest to archaeologists but tends to swamp listings of sites more likely to be of interest for walkers. For this reason, the listings default to around 550 core sites only. These are the stone circles, stone rows and the ring cairns listed by Turner. The default search radius is 2 km. The controls below the map can be used to start a new search by entering a 6- or 8-digit reference (without the prefix "SX"). The search radius can be specified and you can add incremental Display layers of detail on top of the core sites. If using a more detailed layer you will need to decrease the search radius to avoid getting hundreds of search results.
These listings have incorporated, matched up and merged all of the records from all of the major archaeological listings including: Worth, Grinsell, Turner, Butler, Bill Radcliffe, Sandy Gerrard, Megalithic Portal, the National Monument Records and the Historic Environment Records. The author would like to thank Bill, Sandy, the lovely people both at Megalithic Portal (especially Anne Tate who did an amazing job to link listings) and at ACE Archaeology for collaborative work over the years to synchronise and correct listings across the various websites which now interlink. A culmination of years of work the final merger of cairn records took 3 months of cross referencing in 2017 the result being a snapshot of the records at that time. This data has in turn been refined since by field work and research. The round house data was supplied by Sandy Gerrard. Grid references are in order of accuracy: from Google Earth satellite, if visible and found, from a Garmin GPS reading, if visited by the author and from the literature otherwise. Individual site pages will state the source of the grid reference and provide satellite imagery. If a site listing lacks a photo it has not yet been visited by the author in which case the grid reference is from the literature.
Currently the database only includes sites which can be represented by a grid reference. Reaves are not included as they require GIS shape technology which is beyond the current capability of this system. To see the sources for the records, look at the tables on the resources menu. The database listings can also be viewed on a Google map and downloaded as GPS datasets for Garmin devices.
Corrections, or any feedback or suggestions are very welcome, email: info@dartmoorwalks.org.uk.
NOTE: Clicking on the icons for each monument in the map will give the name of the site. You can zoom in and out and drag the map around.
OS Map: SX 53318 74558
HER: MDV14685
Megalithic Portal: 45785
PMD: Barn Hill
Alternate name: Barn Hill S. Cist
ShortName: CT Barn Hill 1
Butler map: 44.10.3
DPD page: 15
Grinsell: WHI 3
Notes: "The cairn mound measures 5.7 metres in diameter and stands up to 0.2 metres high. The cist lies slightly south of the cairn's centre and survives as a 0.98 metre long by 0.6 metre wide and 0.3 metre deep stone-lined pit".
Barrow Report 39 refers to a posible cist on the northern side of Barn Hill and this is a different feature on the southern side. The Barrow Report refers to MDV4114.
Butler Barn Hill S. - Vol. 3. Map 44.10.3. (diagram p.34). Previously listed with an inaccurate grid reference. Now confirmed at SX 53318 74558.
Nearby sites: SX 53318 74558
Distance: 0.27km
OS Map: SX 53060 76190
HER: MDV4151
Megalithic Portal: 32104
Alternate name: Cox Tor Summit Stone Ring Cairn Circle
ShortName: RC CoxTorSum
Butler map: 31.1.3
Grinsell: PET 37a
Turner: A59
Notes: "Cox tor, ring cairn. The outcrop of granite on the summit is surrounded by an ancient wall, enclosing a space of about 21m in diameter, built of small stones. Pillaged and part used in erection of the cairn for the 1887 jubilee."
Nearby sites: SX 53060 76190
Distance: 1.92km
OS Map: SX 53635 76205
HER: MDV26281
ShortName: PO:Cox Tor
Notes: "Previously recorded from aerial photographs as a possible quarry. Marked as 'pond' on modern mapping and is one of the examples suggested by Greeves (2019) to potentially have Prehistoric origins."
Nearby sites: SX 53635 76205
Distance: 1.92km
OS Map: SX 55368 74602
HER: MDV3759
Megalithic Portal: 52014
The Stone Rows of GB: Merrivale 4
PMD: Merrivale Menhir
Alternate name: Merrivale 6 (near standing stone) Encircled Cairn
ShortName: EC Merrivale 6
Butler map: 44.8.6
Grinsell: WAL 6
Turner: F19
Notes: The cairn now turf-covered with an excavation pit in the centre, has a diameter of 2.4m. and a height of 0.1m. The excavation pit can be seen in the photo. A very irregular "circle" of stones can be seen around this cairn. Turner F19.
Nearby sites: SX 55368 74602
Distance: 1.99km
Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks: Dartmoor Site: Merrivale Ceremonial Complex [Photo Set 2]
OS Map: SX 55361 74641
HER: MDV4998
Megalithic Portal: 116
PMD: Merrivale Stone Circle
ShortName: SC Merrivale
DPD page: 17
Turner: G14
Notes: "A stone circle with a diameter of 20.0m. measured from northeast to southwest and 18.0m from northwest to southeast. It is formed by eleven stones spaced between 2.7m and 6.7m. apart and from 0.3m. to 0.5m. high. Three of the stones are of post type and eight are upright slabs. An additional stone, 7.5m. from the northeast side and 0.3m high, is angled towards the circle and may be quite unassociated". See also Legendary Dartmoor: Merrivale Ceremonial Complex. Lethbridge pp.16-18, diagram 16.
Nearby sites: SX 55361 74641
Distance: 1.99km
Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks: Dartmoor Site: Merrivale Ceremonial Complex [Photo Set 2]
OS Map: SX 55359 74599
HER: MDV53395
Megalithic Portal: 115
PMD: Merrivale Standing Stone
ShortName: SS Merrivale
Butler map: 44.8.4
DPD page: 17
Notes: "Two Bronze Age standing stones with a disturbed cairn and a number of small earth fast stones. Located in open generally clitter-free moorland. Only one of the two stones still stands; it is 3.2 metres high and tapers from the base which is 0.7 by 0.5 metres in section. Whether the stone was once the focus or terminus of a stone rows is uncertain. The second stone is now fallen, it is 2.2 metres long, up to 0.4 metres wide and 0.3 metres thick. An adjacent 0.3 metre deep pit may be its socket hole. "
Nearby sites: SX 55359 74599
Distance: 1.98km
Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks: Dartmoor Site: Merrivale Ceremonial Complex [Photo Set 1]
OS Map: SX 55361 74592
HER: MDV53397
Megalithic Portal: 3388
The Stone Rows of GB: Merrivale 4
PMD: Merrivale Menhir I Stone Row
Alternate name: Merrivale 4 Stone Row
ShortName: SR Mer Menhir
Butler map: 44.8.4
DPD page: 17
Notes: Butler Row 4. Prehistoric Monuments of Dartmoor website Menhir 1. "Stone row 4 is now a trivial affair [Butler] of 3 small slabs aligned towards a squarish block near the base of the standing stone. This area has suffered some damage over the past century. There were 5 stones in 1895, the missing one presumably accounted for by the pit which has appeared between the upper stones. This may well be the site of the cairn, C4, at the head of the rows recorded by Rowe but not included in the plans of Lukis or Worth. Nor is there much surviving from the circle of slabs around the menhir depicted in Bray's plan and recorded by Spence Bate in 1871, or the nearby cist which he excavated, C5. The Exploration Committee excavated at both ends of the row but no more socket holes were found and they concluded that this short alignment was complete." Lethbridge pp.16-18, diagram p.16.
Nearby sites: SX 55361 74592
Distance: 1.98km
OS Map: SX 53354 73597
HER: MDV127216
ShortName: PO:Pew Tor
Notes: "A pool measuring 28 by 14m. One of over 40 such 'sacred' pools identified on Dartmoor that are thought to have potentially been designed during the prehistoric period."
Nearby sites: SX 53354 73597
Distance: 0.70km
OS Map: SX 54244 74404
HER: MDV3596
Megalithic Portal: 29932
PMD: Vixen Tor
Alternate name: Vixen Tor 1 Cist
ShortName: CT Vixen Tor 1
Butler map: 44.10.1
DPD page: 15
Grinsell: WHI 2
Barrow Report: 39
Notes: "Cist and possible remains of a barrow. The east and south sides of the cist lean inwards and the north end is slightly defective. The cover stone seems to have been in two parts and it leans against the south corner of the cist. There appears to be traces of a retaining circle of barrows, three stones only, in radius of 3.0m from the centre of the cist. The condition is good. The original dimensions would, however, appear to have been 1.219m x 533mm. One side stone is 1.524m in length, and the other is over 1.372m in length. The present depth below the top of the side stones is 330mm, but excavation would probably prove this to be at least twice this." Vixen Tor has been fenced off by the current landowner. Butler Vol. 3. Map 44.10.1 (diagram p.34). Plan by Butler (1993) shows the capstones to the side. The two stones forming the capstone must have been replaced since then.
See also: Legendary Dartmooor: Vixen Tor and Vixen Tor Forbidden
Nearby sites: SX 54244 74404
Distance: 0.85km
OS Map: SX 53020 75005
HER: MDV4115
Megalithic Portal: 3535
Alternate name: Whitchurch Common N. Stone Ring Cairn Circle
ShortName: RC Whitchurch1
Turner: A41
Notes: Hut Circle or ring cairn? "Ring cairn with entrance. Stone ring 5.5m internal diam, with bank 1.5m wide and 0.4m high.2.5m wide entrance on ssw side" " A hut with an internal diam of 5.8m and walling 1.5m wide and 0.4m high; there is an entrance gap in the sw. This is evidently grinsell's cairn and worth's barrow.(broadly it is on the n slope of barn hill as stated by worth, but locally on the sw slope). While the structure might in isolation be construed as a cairn, the lack of any internal stone, the consistently smooth angle of the inner face of the wall and the presence of other huts and a field system militate against the worth and grinsell classifications"
Nearby sites: SX 53020 75005
Distance: 0.80km
Page last updated 18/02/24