Round cairn east of Down Tor near Combshead Tor

This round cairn stands on the exposed upland east of Down Tor, part of the dense scatter of burial monuments that covers Dartmoor's higher ground. Built during the Bronze Age, it would once have marked a grave or graves, its stone heap visible across the moorland for miles. Today it survives as a low mound, its form softened by time and weathering.

The cairn sits in open country, surrounded by the characteristic vegetation and stone-studded terrain of central Dartmoor. Its presence speaks to the long history of settlement and burial practice on these heights, when the moor was more densely populated than in later centuries. Walking here offers a sense of that ancient landscape and the people who found meaning in these high, windswept places.