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Hut circles and cairnfield, Ruelake Pit

Grid ref: SX 6403 8876

Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1019489) describes a hut circle settlement, a cairnfield and a field system on a gentle south-west-facing slope above the Ruelake Pit. The settlement has three huts, circular or oval rubble banks round spaces of 18 to 22 square metres, averaging 19.7, with walls 0.3 to 0.6 metres high. All have visible doorways and one is attached to a short length of field wall. The cairnfield is a cluster of at least 14 mounds 1.5 to 4 metres across and 0.2 to 0.6 metres high, two with a stone kerb. The fields survive as lengths of winding walling between the huts and the cairnfield. It lies across the parishes of Gidleigh and Throwleigh, about 0.8 km north-west of Rival Tor and 3.1 km west of Gidleigh.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1019489, which cites Butler, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities (1991), Turner's unpublished plan of the Ruelake Pits cairnfield (1982) and fieldwork for the Monuments Protection Programme by S. Gerrard (1999).

  • Period: Bronze Age
  • Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1019489)
  • Grid reference: SX 6403 8876 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)
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Dartmoor Illustrated, page 74Plate from Dartmoor Illustrated, page 74, 1900

“The fogs are most deceptive and very tricky. They come on unexpectedly, and change the whole aspect of the surroundings. They magnify all things ; hills comparatively small appear as high mountains, and a small bird like a snipe looks as big as a pigeon.”

Also on Our DartmoorHamel Down strip fields — Medieval strip fields on the lower west slope of Hamel Down, with a barn platform 19.5 m long, three small openworks, five small prehistoric settlements (one dug in 1938) and a 13.4 m cairn.

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