Great Gnats Head 7 Reported Cairn
Database entries
OS Map: SX 615 681
OS Source: HER
HER: MDV107559
Alternate name: Great Gnats Head 7
Short Name: CN:GreatGnats7
Exist: Yes
Record: Unique
Record Source: HER
Hut Class: No
Cairn Class: Yes
Lidar: SX 615 681
Guide Map: 44
Nearest Bus Stop: Princetown Dartmoor Visitor Centre (7.7 km) [Route: 98,171,172]
Nearby sites: SX 615 681
Notes
HER: Site of a number of peat charcoal burning platforms on Great Gnats' Head. These are not cairns but included here to help explain the many mounds.‘Meiler’ platforms comprise raised, usually circular, earthworks with level tops. Although similar to peat drying platforms they lack the peripheral drainage ditch and charcoal samples confirm their use. The level platform was prepared with circular tiers of dried peat bricks with horizontal vents to admit a controlled air flow.
Sites for peat charcoal burning were always on raised ground within areas of visible turf cutting and, on Dartmoor, between altitudes 465 metres and 545 metres OD. The cutting was often extensive and sometimes areas were denuded of peat. The platforms recorded so far are mostly organised in clusters at single locations suggesting that burning was undertaken at regional hubs.