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Cairns & Barrows

Ring cairn near Widgery Cross

Grid ref: SX 5300 8559

Main image: Photo: Graham Horn, Wikimedia Commons

This scheduled monument comprises two distinct structures from different periods. The ring cairn is a Bronze Age burial monument, a circular bank of stones that once covered a central burial or ceremonial deposit. The rectangular building earthwork, probably dating to the medieval or later period, shows where a structure once stood on this exposed moorland location.

Today the site appears as subtle earthworks on the open moor. It is typical of Dartmoor's dense archaeology, where Bronze Age burial monuments and later settlements tell the story of continuous use of the high ground. The area around Widgery Cross is particularly rich in such sites, reflecting the landscape's long human history.

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Notes from a visit on 16 October 2026

Whilst trialling a new mobile app we're building for Our Dartmoor I attempted to find this location.
I walked up from the stile near the river and then across - basically North to South.
Although it was Autumn, some bracken remained and plenty of gorse (the dog was not happy).
I found nothing, that's not to say there isn't anything here, but I'm unsure what time of year you might discover anything other than a few bumps.

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A Hundred Years on Dartmoor, page 105Plate from A Hundred Years on Dartmoor, page 105, 1901

“It came with the wind through the silence of the night, a long, deep mutter, then a rising howl, and then the sad moan in which it died away.”

Also on Our DartmoorTurnpike Stone Set Into Wall at SX 7428 6614 near The Rock — A boundary marker stone set into a moorland wall, marking historic land division on the slopes south west of The Rock.

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