The Cemetery: Cosdon triple stone row and cairn

Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1013426) describes a triple stone alignment, a cairn and a short length of hollow way on a gently sloping shelf on the east side of Cawsand or Cosdon Hill, at the head of Cheriton Combe. The row is known locally as The Cemetery or The Graveyard. It runs west-north-west to east-south-east and is 138 metres long, three parallel rows of at least 118 stones that get taller uphill towards the cairn. The tallest stand up to 1 metre high, while many at the east end show only a little above ground and many more are probably buried, so the east end can't be seen at ground level. At the west end three blocking stones stand up to 1 metre high. The rows stay 1.4 metres apart, while the stones along them get closer together eastwards, from 1.6 to 1.3 metres, and the rows curve about 3 degrees north from a point 70 metres from the west end. In 1896 the Dartmoor Exploration Committee re-erected an unknown number of stones, including at least two of the blocking stones. It lies in the parish of South Tawton, about 2 km north-east of Little Hound Tor and 2.6 km south of Sticklepath.

The cairn lies 4.5 metres west of the blocking stones, a circular mound 7.8 metres across and up to 0.7 metres high. Seven stones on edge round its edge show a kerb, mostly buried. Two joined cists share an end slab. The northern one is a hollow 1.2 by 0.9 metres and 0.5 metres deep, with one end and one side slab. The southern, about 1.1 by 1 metre and 0.4 metres deep, has three upright slabs partly hidden by a big granite slab that was probably its cover stone. The Committee excavated the cairn in 1896 and found the cists already robbed and no finds, though they did see an inner kerb of upright slabs round the cists. The monument is cut by a hollow way, two parallel hollow ways here, 3 metres wide and 0.7 and 1 metre deep, part of a track from South Zeal to Hangingstone Hill that probably carried peat from the moor and may be medieval.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1013426, which cites Crossing's Guide to Dartmoor (1990 edition), page 64, Worth's Dartmoor (1981 edition), pages 218 to 219, Hayward, Dartmoor 365 (1991), page 31, Butler, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities, vol 2 (1990), pages 204 to 206, Baring-Gould, Third Report of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee (Devonshire Association Transactions, vol 28, 1896), page 180, Turner, 'Ring Cairns, Stone Circles and Related Monuments on Dartmoor' (Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings 48, 1990), page 74, and the Devon County Sites and Monuments Register (SX69SW19 and SX69SW19.1). Sandy Gerrard has posted a pointer to his Cosdon entry in the stone rows gazetteer (stonerows.wordpress.com) on the Historic England page; I have not linked it.

• Period: Bronze Age
• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1013426)
• Grid reference: SX 6438 9158 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)