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 73416 75519
HER: MDV7437
Megalithic Portal: 32071
PMD: Blackslade Down
ShortName: CT Blackslade
Butler map: 9.8
Butler Vol 5: p.47 & Fig.26
DPD page: 129
Grinsell: WID 14
Barrow Report: 53 56
Notes: Butler Vol. 1. Map 9.8 (photo on p.61, diagram Vol. 5. p.47). Lethbridge diagram p.129 and photo bottom p.129.
Nearby sites: SX 73416 75519
Distance: 1.78km
OS Map: SX 7167 7585
HER: MDV18864
Megalithic Portal: 45855
ShortName: CS:Dunstone
Notes: "Cup-marked stone at SX71677585, Dunstone. Dunstone Rock is a large, weathered undressed granite boulder aligned approximately due North-South. It is 2.4m long by 1.4m wide and 1.0m high. The surface has 13 cups which fall into two groups. Although some of the cups may be natural, Dunstone manor takes its name from this stone and is recorded in Domesday as "Dunestonetuna" suggesting a long tradition of importance attached to the stone. A tradition of paying rent money by placing money in the cups is recorded until recent times."
Nearby sites: SX 7167 7585
Distance: 0.00km
OS Map: SX 732 758
HER: MDV7438
Megalithic Portal: 31984
ShortName: ST:TunhillRock
Nearby sites: SX 732 758
Distance: 1.53km
OS Map: SX 73353 75214
HER: MDV7537
Megalithic Portal: 32069
ShortName: CN:Wittaburrow
Butler map: 9.9.1
Grinsell: WID 15
Notes: "A large stony round cairn, south of Wittaburrow. The mound has a 25 metre diameter at base, but the structure has been much altered, probably robbed, and is now quite low in places. A ‘bite-shaped’ section is missing from the main mound on the south-eastern side where a smaller cairn, which is unlikely to be an original feature, stands within the original spread of the monument. Two large hollows have been dug into the main mound which, overall, survives in a very uneven state."
Nearby sites: SX 73353 75214
Distance: 1.80km
Page last updated 18/02/24