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Round cairn cemetery on White Hill
Peter Tavy, Tavistock, Devon
Grid ref: SX 5316 8371
- Period: Bronze Age
- Status: Eight scheduled monuments (Historic England entries listed below)
- Cairns: Three ring cairns and round cairns, 4.5 m to 16 m across, up to 0.9 m high
A round cairn cemetery is a group of burial mounds on one hill. Historic England records one on White Hill: two ring cairns just north-east of the summit and a spread of round cairns and a third ring cairn on the gentle west-facing slope about 230 m to 460 m south-west of it, above Willsworthy Army Camp. A ring cairn is a flat inner area, 11 m to 15 m across, enclosed by a low bank.
Several of the round cairns have a hollow or trench in the middle from digging by the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould in 1888, which found a pan or basin of ashes and charcoal. The biggest, 16 m across, has been partly damaged but archaeological layers should survive.
The eight scheduled monuments
| Historic England entry | Grid reference | What survives |
|---|---|---|
| 1008751 | SX 53427 83853 | A ring cairn 50 m north-east of the summit: an 11 m inner area inside a bank 2.3 m wide, with a hollow in the middle. |
| 1008752 | SX 53443 83898 | A ring cairn 80 m north-east of the summit: a 13 m inner area inside a bank 1.8 m wide, with a hollow in the middle. |
| 1008755 | SX 53203 83705 | A round cairn 16 m across and up to 0.4 m high, partly damaged. |
| 1008753 | SX 53146 83652 | A round cairn 10 m across and up to 0.4 m high, partly dug by Baring-Gould in 1888. |
| 1011433 | SX 53007 83643 | Three close round cairns: a flat-topped 13 m one (partly dug by Baring-Gould in 1888), a small 4.5 m one and an oval 11 m by 4 m. |
| 1011444 | SX 53048 83654 | A round cairn 10 m across and up to 0.9 m high, partly dug by Baring-Gould in 1888. |
| 1011478 | SX 53093 83643 | A flat-topped round cairn 13 m across with a surrounding quarry ditch, partly dug by Baring-Gould in 1888. |
| 1011449 | SX 52942 83680 | A ring cairn with a raised 15 m platform inside a bank 3.5 m wide and 0.5 m high, with a hollow in the middle. |
Grid references are from the Historic England entries. Each entry covers one scheduled monument; a monument can hold several features.
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The 8 rings on this map are the separate scheduled monuments that make up this listing, placed from Historic England’s records. Tap a ring for its grid reference and a link to its official entry. The pin marks the middle of the group.
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