Four round barrows, Soussons Down

Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1021189) describes four round barrows on a ridge between the valleys of the East Dart and the West Webburn. The northern is a flat-topped mound 10 metres across and up to 0.5 metres high. Next to it is a substantial mound 20 metres across and 1 metre high, with two edge-set stones on the south-east side that may be a buried kerb. The next mound south is 14 metres across and 1.4 metres high. The Dartmoor Exploration Committee part excavated it in 1902 and found a flint arrowhead, two pieces of bronze and a central pit holding wood charcoal and burnt bone, with a paved area beside the pit also covered in bone and charcoal. It lies in the parish of Manaton, about 1.9 km south-west of Birch Tor and 1.7 km west of Challacombe.

The southern mound is 19.5 metres across and up to 2.2 metres high. It was also part excavated, and revealed charcoal, a flint flake and a circular cist holding burnt human bones and another flint flake, with a single sherd of pottery and traces of a stone kerb. Both excavated barrows were made largely of soil, and all four may have been, so quarry ditches up to 4 metres wide, no longer visible, surround the mounds as buried features.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1021189, which cites Butler, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities (1991), page 19, and fieldwork for the Monuments Protection Programme by S. Gerrard (1998).

• Period: Bronze Age
• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1021189)
• Grid reference: SX 6769 7966 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)