Unenclosed hut circle settlement near Hemstone Rocks

This scheduled monument preserves the remains of a prehistoric settlement on the open moor, likely dating to the Bronze Age when Dartmoor supported scattered farming communities. The site contains the footings of stone hut circles, burial cairns, and traces of the field systems that once divided the moorland into small plots for cultivation and grazing.

Today the settlement sits as low stone foundations and earthworks among the rough grass and heather. It tells a story of how people lived and worked on Dartmoor in ancient times, before the climate deteriorated and many such settlements were abandoned. The site lies within the wider archaeological landscape of upland Dartmoor, where hundreds of similar Bronze Age sites still survive.