Prehistoric and medieval landscape in Merrivale Newtake

• Period: Bronze Age, medieval and post-medieval
• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1016148)
• Huts: At least 57 stone hut circles in the larger settlement

The monument falls into six areas on a west-facing slope within Merrivale Newtake, above the River Walkham. The largest prehistoric settlement has at least 57 stone hut circles and three blocks of irregular fields; inside, the huts range from 2.1 m to 8.2 m across, with walls 0.3 m to 1.3 m high. Thirty have visible doorways, two a porch, three are partitioned, one has a bench and one a courtyard. Most are joined by field walls, which suggests the fields came later. A second, smaller settlement has two separate hut circles.

A length of the Great Western Reave crosses the area. Historic England says it is over 10 km long in all, the longest known prehistoric land boundary on Dartmoor, and that here it seems designed to keep the large settlements out of the land beside the River Walkham.

The later remains include a deserted medieval settlement of two longhouses, an outbuilding and a farmyard, with at least six fields, a funnel-shaped earthwork for driving animals to the river, and a 700 m boundary bank and ditch. There is also a tin streamwork, a hollow 3 m deep, and an adit about 15 m long that still drains water. A blowing mill 8.8 m by 4.8 m has a mouldstone by its door and a waterlogged wheelpit; it is one of three above Merrivale Bridge, which may date to around 1700. Twelve pillow mounds and a vermin trap belong to Merrivale Warren, which has at least 27 pillow mounds along the slopes of Great Mis Tor, Little Mis Tor and Over Tor.

See the Merrivale Antiquities page for the rest of the Merrivale monuments.