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Antiquities

Prehistoric settlement and irregular aggregate field system 600m west of Laughter Hole Farm

Devon

This scheduled monument preserves evidence of prehistoric occupation and land use on the open moor. The site comprises a settlement area alongside an irregular field system, likely dating to the Bronze Age when Dartmoor supported scattered farming communities. The fields show the ancient boundaries that once divided pastoral and arable land across this part of the moor.

Visiting today, the archaeology lies low in the landscape: stone-built structures and wall lines are visible as slight earthworks and field traces among the moorland turf and bracken. The site speaks to how intensively Dartmoor was once farmed and settled, before later changes left these upland landscapes to rough grazing and wild growth. It remains part of the wider archaeological palimpsest that defines central Dartmoor.

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Photo: Andrew Hackney (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons

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