Eylesbarrow Reave across Ringmoor Down

Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1017395) places this stretch in the Dartmoor reaves, a very large system of prehistoric land division introduced around 1700 BC. The reaves are simple banks of stone and earth that mark out territories, some tens of kilometres across, as parallel, contour and watershed reaves, dividing the lower land from the grazing of the high moor. The Eylesbarrow Reave is a watershed reave separating the Plym from the Meavy, running about 6 kilometres from the Plym at Cadworthy Wood to the summit of Eylesbarrow. It can be traced from end to end, but with gaps that leave it in separate sections. It lies in the parish of Sheepstor, about 1.1 km north-west of Legis Tor and 1.3 km south of Sheepstor.

This section runs for 800 metres across the top of Ringmoor Down, with gaps of about 100 metres at each end, a bank of stone and earth up to 0.3 metres high and 3 metres wide. A later field bank crosses it in two places and several recent tracks cut it. Three large cairns lie about 100 metres from its north-west side, and a stone row and cairns lie within 500 metres of its south-east side.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1017395, which cites Fleming, The Dartmoor Reaves (1988) and the Devon County Sites and Monuments Register (SX56NE-278, 1990).

• Period: Bronze Age
• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1017395)
• Grid reference: SX 5638 6638 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)