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Cairns and ring cairns on Great Nodden
Bridestowe, Okehampton, Devon
Grid ref: SX 5350 8705
Main image: Photo: Sandy Gerrard (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons
- Period: Bronze Age
- Status: Eight scheduled monuments (Historic England entries listed below)
- Cairns: Ten in all: eight round cairns and two ring cairns, 4 m to 17.3 m across
- Where: The slopes west and north-east of the summit and the south-facing spur to the south-west
Great Nodden carries a scatter of burial cairns, from the slopes beside the summit to a south-facing spur about a kilometre to the south-west, all overlooking the valley of the River Lyd. A round cairn is a mound of stones over a burial; a ring cairn is a circular bank round a hollow middle. Historic England schedules eight monuments here, holding ten cairns, two of them ring cairns. Most show hollows or trenches left by early digging or robbing.
The biggest is a round cairn 270 m west of the summit, 17.3 m across and up to 1 m high. On the spur, 700 m to 840 m south-west, smaller cairns stand close together, including pairs 4 m to 6.5 m across. The two ring cairns are 510 m and 1,060 m south-west of the summit: the nearer has a bank 3.5 m wide round an area 10.7 m across, with a gap in the west side that may be the original entrance; the further one has a bank 2.3 m wide round an area 13.4 m across, holding a small central mound.
The eight scheduled monuments
| Historic England entry | Grid reference | What survives |
|---|---|---|
| 1007646 | SX 54266 87886 | A round cairn 11 m by 7 m and up to 0.5 m high, with two narrow trenches cut into the ends from early digging or robbing. |
| 1007647 | SX 53613 87397 | A round cairn 17.3 m across and up to 1 m high, the largest here, with loose rubble over the centre from partial digging or robbing. |
| 1007649 | SX 53512 87072 | A ring cairn: a bank 3.5 m wide and 0.5 m high round an area 10.7 m across, with a gap in the west side and a pitted interior. |
| 1007650 | SX 53369 86938 | A round cairn 6 m across and up to 0.6 m high, with a stone-filled hollow in the middle. |
| 1007651 | SX 53389 86905 | Two round cairns 11 m apart, 4.3 m and 4 m across and up to 0.5 m high. |
| 1007652 | SX 53336 86880 | A round cairn 8 m across and up to 0.7 m high, with a slight hollow in the middle. |
| 1010122 | SX 53325 86792 | Two round cairns 7.5 m apart: a flat-topped one 5 m across and a 6.5 m one up to 0.7 m high with a stone-filled hollow. |
| 1007653 | SX 53218 86597 | A ring cairn: a bank 2.3 m wide and 0.3 m high round an area 13.4 m across, with a small mound 6 m across in the middle. |
Grid references are from the Historic England entries. Each entry covers one scheduled monument; a monument can hold several features.
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The 8 rings on this map are the separate scheduled monuments that make up this listing, placed from Historic England’s records. Tap a ring for its grid reference and a link to its official entry. The pin marks the middle of the group.
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Ter Hill Cross. Photograph by Glavind Strachan Photography“'Way, these here pisgies be a makin' sich a rattle that I want put up wi't no more. I'll zee what they he up to; I can zee mun droo the 'all in the planchin'.”
Also on Our DartmoorThree round cairns near White Tor — Three Bronze Age round cairns on the south slope of White Tor, characteristic of Dartmoor's prehistoric burial landscape.
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