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.
Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks: Dartmoor Site: Langstone Moor Stone Circle, Stone Row & Settlements
OS Map: SX 55638 78204
HER: MDV4226
Megalithic Portal: 1062
PMD: Langstone Moor Stone Circle
ShortName: SC Langstone
Butler map: 30.10
DPD page: 14
Turner: G10
Notes: The Langstone standing stone and also the stone circle were used for target practice by American troops who were stationed nearby during the Second World War. Bullet holes can be seen on the Langstone standing stone and the circle was sadly smashed to smithereens. The Langstone Moor Stone circle had been restored in 1894 when all of the stones were re-erected in their original socket holes. Today only 3 stones remain intact with 10 having been destroyed and the rest overturned during World War Two. The debris of the former stones remain in place. Pre-war photos give a sense of how spectacular this site used to be. The original restored circle consisted of 16 stones in a 20.9m circle. The original survey by the Dartmoor Exploration Committee suggested that there might have originally been a secondary concentric circle consisting of elvan rather than granite stones although the evidence for this today is unclear (see Extract from the Second Report of the D.E.C.), see also HER MDV4226. Further coverage can be found on Legendary Dartmoor: Dartmoor's Prehistoric Langstone Moor. Lethbridge p14, diagram p13.
Nearby sites: SX 55638 78204
Distance: 1.33km
Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks: Dartmoor Site: Langstone Moor Stone Circle, Stone Row & Settlements
OS Map: SX 54843 77922
HER: MDV48862
Megalithic Portal: 45833
ShortName: RC Langstone
Turner: A22
Notes: The author visited this site on 25/06/2018. A semi circular group of mounds can indeed be seen but these mounds are like the mounds all over Cox Tor, White Tor and Roos Tor. These mounds are probably periglacial. An alternative explanation of these mounds is the activity of the yellow meadow ant (Lasius flavus). Whilst the ants can use stones (natural or ring cairn) to initiate their mounds they are not required. Whichever explanation for these mounds is correct it seems most likely this site is a natural occurrence that happens to look like a ring cairn.
"A semi-circular bank, possibly the remains of a ring cairn.1.4 to 2m wide, 0.4m high. Composed of small + medium sized stones now largely turf-covered. It fades at each end of a near-perfect semi-circle of 14.9m internal diam. There is a low stone pile, 0.2m high, in se quadrant".
See also: On periglacial mounds see "What are these bumps on the moor?". On meadow ant mounds, see Morey, C.R 2010 "A New Interpretation of the Earth Hummocks on Cox Tor, Dartmoor, Devonshire" Geoscience in South-West England, 12, 219-222)
Nearby sites: SX 54843 77922
Distance: 1.64km
OS Map: SX 555 779
HER: MDV4219
Megalithic Portal: 17507
ShortName: ST Langstone
Butler map: 30.2
Notes: Details via Megalithic Portal.
Nearby sites: SX 555 779
Distance: 1.14km
Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks: Dartmoor Site: Langstone Moor Stone Circle, Stone Row & Settlements
OS Map: SX 55736 78120
HER: MDV4593
Megalithic Portal: 45786
PMD: Near Langstone Moor Stone circle
ShortName: CT Langstone 2
Butler map: 30.10.2
Grinsell: PET 39
Notes: The cist is now housed in the Plymouth City Museum. Butler Langstone Moor 2 - Vol. 2. Map 30.10. 129
Nearby sites: SX 55736 78120
Distance: 1.21km
OS Map: SX 56926 75946
HER: MDV15372
Megalithic Portal: 45609
Alternate name: Little Mis Tor S.E. Embanked Cairn Circle
ShortName: CC:MisTor Farm
Butler map: 30.17
Butler Vol 5: p.163 & Fig.104
Grinsell: LYD 37a
Turner: B13
Notes: "Base of ancient tumulus, about 20m in diameter, may have formed a bound of the ancient boundary between lydford and walkhampton (prowse)."
Nearby sites: SX 56926 75946
Distance: 1.28km
OS Map: SX 54838 77646
HER: MDV4116
Megalithic Portal: 35802
Alternate name: Langstone Moor S.2 Cairn
ShortName: CN Langston S2
Butler map: 31.19.2
Grinsell: PET 34
Notes: "Two round barrows on Peter Tavy Great Common. (A) SX54847764 A flat topped stony mound, probably a cairn, about 12m E-W by 11m transversely and of 0.6m maximum height. There is no apparent kerb and the edges are ill-defined. It is predominantly turf-covered but a small area of stones is exposed in the NW quadrant presumably the site of the 1899 excavation.(B) SX54887765 Located 45m ENE of 'A' or probable cairn visible as a turf covered mound about 5m in diameter and 0.3m high. No kerb is evident and the centre has been disturbed. The mounds are both quite prominently situated on the summit of a gently domed ridge of rough grassland which is generally devoid of surface stone." Previously listed on HER as 4120 - presumably deleted as a duplicate of 4116.
Nearby sites: SX 54838 77646
Distance: 1.51km
Page last updated 18/02/24