Shell Top hut circle settlement, cairn and BC boundary stone

Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1015749) describes a partly enclosed hut circle settlement, a round cairn and a post-medieval boundary stone on a south-west-facing slope above Whitehill Yeo and the Cholwichtown china clay works. The scheduling falls into four separate areas. The monument is in the care of the Secretary of State. It lies in the parish of Shaugh Prior, about 1.5 km south-east of Great Trowlesworthy Tor and 2.8 km north-east of Lee Moor.

The settlement has two simple enclosures and ten huts. The western enclosure is 44 metres by 34 metres, bounded by a boulder wall 1 metre wide and up to 0.8 metres high, except on the north-east side where no wall shows, so it may never have been finished or may have been robbed. Two huts lie inside, circular or oval. The eastern enclosure is 35 metres by 22 metres with a boulder wall 1.6 metres wide and up to 0.6 metres high, and one hut inside. A 1 metre gap in the north-east, edged with big faced boulders, may be an original entrance. Seven more huts lie outside the enclosures, each a bank of earth and stone round an area of 3.14 to 24.3 square metres.

The round cairn, north-west of the western enclosure, is 8.5 metres north to south by 7 metres east to west and up to 1.1 metres high. Two separate hollows dug into it suggest an early partial excavation or robbing. A lozenge-shaped stone 1.55 metres long and 0.57 metres wide lies fallen at the west-south-west foot of the mound and may once have stood upright on the cairn. It has the letters BC cut one above the other in the apex at the east end. The C could stand for Cholwich Town or Manor, or for Cornwood Parish, and the B for Blandford Manor.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1015749, which cites Thackray, The Upper Plym Valley (1994), Archaeological Site Inventory.

• Period: Bronze Age
• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1015749)
• Grid reference: SX 5921 6366 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)