Five barrows on Hamel Down

Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1003296) describes five cairns on Hamel Down that form part of a cemetery of at least nine. The scheduling falls in four areas. It lies across the parishes of Widecombe in the Moor and Manaton, about 1 km south of Hameldown Tor and 1.2 km east of Challacombe.

The northernmost is a circular earth and stone mound 40 metres across and up to 2 metres high with a slightly hollowed centre, with a boundary stone on top marked Broad Burrow. To the south, the second is a circular stony mound 21.5 metres across and up to 1 metre high that carries a boundary stone marked Single Burrow. Bate and Rowe partly excavated it in 1873 and found a stone kerb, a small central cairn, and some cremated bone mixed with charcoal, with a flint flake 2 metres to the south-east of the central feature.

Further south are two more cairns. The northern of the two is a circular stony mound 17 metres across and up to 1.4 metres high with a boundary stone marked Two Burrows. Bate excavated it in 1872 and found a central cairn covered by five stone slabs and, nearby, a dagger with an amber-studded pommel. Four metres to the south is a circular cairn 11.5 metres across and 1 metre high, crossed by a granite boundary wall. The southernmost is a circular flat-topped mound 13 metres across and 1 metre high, with a shallow central hollow, inside the Blackaton Down newtake. Some cairns of the cemetery are protected by separate schedulings, and others are not because they have not been formally assessed.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1003296 (updated 5 November 2015), which cites Butler, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities, vol 1 (1991), page 148, and PastScape 445043, 445080, 445083 and 445086.

• Period: Bronze Age
• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1003296)
• Grid reference: SX 7059 7964 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)