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This scheduled monument is a cairn, a mound of stones built over a cist, a small stone-built burial chamber. Cairns like this one are common across Dartmoor and date to the Bronze Age, when they served as communal or individual graves. The cist would originally have held cremated or inhumed remains, along with grave goods now long since removed or dispersed.
Today the site stands among the open moorland north of Shavercombe Brook, its stones weathered by centuries of exposure. It offers insight into Dartmoor's prehistoric past and the ritual practices of ancient communities who lived and buried their dead on these high, exposed lands.
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Plate from Dartmoor Illustrated, page 200, 1900“A lonely, desolate spot, forsaken even by the cattle and wild ponies of the forest, but yet affording a far off glimpse of the cultivated world beyond those hills which form a barrier to the north.”
Also on Our DartmoorStrange Survivals — A folklorist's tour of the odd customs, beliefs and everyday relics that survive from a distant past, from hearth and bell to superstition and rhyme.
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