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Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1003284) describes a round cairn on the summit ridge of Hamel Down, one of a cemetery of at least nine cairns. It is a steep-sided stony mound 18 metres across and up to 2.2 metres high, with a hollow on the east side where it was partly dug in the past. A boundary stone on top reads 'Hamiton Beacon', as the record gives it, and a granite boundary wall crosses the cairn. It lies in the parish of Widecombe in the Moor, about 1.8 km south of Hameldown Tor and 1.6 km east of Challacombe.
The cairn's name comes from its use as a beacon in medieval times. 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 1003284 (updated 5 November 2015), which cites Butler, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities, vol 1 (1991), page 148, and PastScape 445096.
- Period: Bronze Age
- Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1003284)
- Grid reference: SX 7082 7891 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)
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Photograph by Glavind Strachan Photography“Tis the pisgies, I'll warn," said an old man, as he settled down on his low seat by the fire; "I've heerd mun say that you can't tell mun, when they be callin', from a Christian.”
Also on Our DartmoorGreat Bidlake — A Grade II* listed farmhouse on the high moor, likely medieval or early post-medieval in origin.
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