Nattor Down great enclosure and hut circles

Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1008712) describes an enclosure boundary wall, thirteen stone hut circles and a round cairn on the west-facing slope of Nattor Down and Hamlyn's Newtake, overlooking the valley of the Willsworthy Brook. The boundary is a rubble bank 1,150 metres long, 2.5 metres wide and 0.5 metres high, with an entrance gap 55 metres wide about halfway along. Only its northern bank is scheduled, but the whole enclosure is at least 730 metres east to west by 770 metres north to south. The size and shape of the entrance suggest it was built to hold livestock driven down from the higher moor, and its size reflects the need for a lot of grazing. It lies in the parish of Peter Tavy, about 0.5 km west of Ger Tor and 3.5 km south-east of Lydford.

A smaller enclosure holding seven hut circles is attached to the outside of the boundary wall. It is bounded by a bank on three sides, with nothing on the ground to show the west side, which may be buried under peat. It measures 60 metres north to south by at least 60 metres east to west. The seven huts are terraced into the slope, 2 to 4.4 metres across inside, averaging 3.68 metres, with walls 0.2 to 0.5 metres high. A further hut, oval, 3 metres by 2 metres inside, is attached to the inside face of the long wall. Four more huts lie inside the large enclosure close to the long wall: three circular, 4.2 to 5 metres across, and one oval, 2.8 metres by 2 metres, with walls 0.2 to 0.6 metres high.

Another structure stands in the entrance to the large enclosure, a drystone coursed wall 1 metre wide and 0.9 metres high around a space 5.5 metres across. The visible walls are post-medieval and probably a sheep-fold built on the site of an earlier hut circle, with deposits and features from the hut surviving underground. A round cairn 8 metres across and 0.8 metres high lies outside the large enclosure, 2 metres from the long bank, which bends away from its line to go round the mound. That shows the cairn is older than the enclosure.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1008712, which cites Butler, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities (1991), page 99, Gibson, Single Monument Class Description: Stone Hut Circles (1987), the Devon County Sites and Monuments Register (SX58SW034 and SX58SW28) and fieldwork for the Monuments Protection Programme by S. Gerrard.

• Period: Bronze Age
• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1008712)
• Grid reference: SX 5424 8331 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)