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Cairns & Barrows

Three round cairns near White Tor

Grid ref: SX 5434 7836

Three round cairns occupy the moorland south of White Tor summit, part of the concentrated funerary landscape that characterises the higher ground of central Dartmoor. These structures likely date to the Bronze Age, when communities across the moor built cairns to mark the dead and establish territorial presence on the high ground. The cairns survive as low stone mounds, weathered but recognisable in the open moorland terrain.

The site sits within a broader pattern of prehistoric settlement and ritual activity around White Tor. Visiting the cairns means walking into country that has held human significance for over three thousand years, and offers perspective on how Dartmoor's early inhabitants used and understood their landscape.

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A close-up photograph from DartmoorPhotograph by Glavind Strachan Photography

“It struck me as something new in farming, and I was going to ask him what there was in it that he paid a labourer to hoe his stubbles.”

Also on Our DartmoorConduit Head Attached to Front of 67A — A listed stone conduit head built to supply water to a house on Dartmoor.

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