Dartmoor Site: Stalldown Stone Row [Photo Set 1]

Stalldown Stone Row [Photo Set 1]

This site is featured on the Ivybridge 2: West Erme - Burford, Stalldown and Erme Rows and Cairns walk. These photos were taken on Stalldown Barrow (SX63216207 Butler Vol. 4. Map 54: 4, 18).The first set of photos is of the settlements on the southern slopes of Stalldown Barrow.

The enormous size of the stones used in the Stalldown stone row makes it one of the most impressive rows on Dartmoor. The row can be clearly seen at quite some distance on the south western slopes of Stalldown Barrow. The row was in a ruinous state with most of the stones lying flat when it was restored by Baring-Gould in 1897. The restoration claimed to only use the original sockets for the stones but Worth claims that the row would not have originally aligned to the small circle of stones making the cairn just over the crest of the hill heading south. Butler suggests the curve westwards by 14° of the row as it passes over the crest of the hill is indeed an original feature of the row. The north end of the row has six particularly large pillars.

There are a number of cairns on Stalldown. Butler lists 11 cairns in the vicinity. Butler's Cairn 1 is the circle already mentioned which can be seen in the 10^th and 12^th photo of the row below. The row cuts a line of cairns laid out across the ridge of Stalldown. The most prominent is about 0.5Km to the East of the row on the highest point of the ridge and includes Hillson's House (Butler's Cairn 7). In line with the row about 1Km north at the base of the hill are Cairns 8 & 9. The day these photos were taken there had been controlled burning off which made finding Cairn 9 particularly easy as it appeared as an island of green in a burnt off area. Cairn 9 is about 11.5m across and the sides and end stone of a cist at the centre can be clearly seen along with an outer ring of small stones around its base.

For more photos of Stalldown row including Hillson's House see Stalldown Stone Row [Photo Set 2]

These photos were taken on the 19^th March 2011.