Watern Oke: eight hut circles and a shieling

Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1011561) describes eight stone hut circles and a shieling beside an area of clitter on a south-facing slope above the valley of the River Tavy, part of the large unenclosed Watern Oke settlement. Two of the huts are attached to boundary walls. Six are circular, 2.3 to 4.3 metres across inside, and two are oval, 3.5 to 7.4 metres long and 2 to 3 metres wide. The walls average 0.76 metres high. The Dartmoor Exploration Committee's excavation in June 1905 found hearths in seven of the huts. It lies in the parish of Dartmoor Forest, about 1.7 km east of Ger Tor.

The shieling is a rectangular one-room building with coursed stone walls, later than the huts and probably medieval. It is 7.4 metres long and 3 metres wide inside, with walls 1.7 metres wide and up to 1 metre high, and the excavation found a fireplace in the south-west corner.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1011561, which cites Anderson, 'Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke' (Devonshire Association Transactions, vol 38, 1906), pages 108 to 109, Gibson, Single Monument Class Description: Stone Hut Circles (1987), and Schofield, Single Monument Class Description: Shielings (1989).

• Period: Bronze Age
• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1011561)
• Grid reference: SX 5641 8342 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)

Historic England listed designation: Eight stone hut circles and a shieling forming part of the unenclosed stone hut circle settlement at Watern Oke