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Grid ref: SX 5213 8287
On walking routes: The Lichway
Main image: Photo: Guy Wareham, Wikimedia Commons
Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1007664) describes a ring cairn on the brow of a west-facing slope overlooking Lydford village. The earthwork is a circular bank 3 metres wide and 0.3 metres high around an inner area 13 metres across.
A slight hollow against the inside of the northern bank suggests early digging, stone robbing or military reuse. The record does not say which.
The name comes from Willsworthy Camp, the army camp nearby. Crossing's Guide to Dartmoor says the War Office roads over this part of the down were made when the camp was formed, and that it was named after its first site at Willsworthy.
Sources: Historic England list entry 1007664, which cites Grinsell, Dartmoor Barrows (Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings, 1978), Turner, Ring Cairns, Stone Circles and Related Monuments on Dartmoor (1990), the National Archaeological Record and fieldwork by S. Gerrard for the Monuments Protection Programme. The Willsworthy Camp paragraph is from Crossing's Guide to Dartmoor (1914), vol 2.
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