Western White Barrow

Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1002661) describes a round cairn, a wayside cross and a shelter on the summit of the ridge called Quickbeam Hill. The cairn is a circular stony mound up to 21 metres across and 1.7 metres high. The cross stands on the cairn but is upside down. It is 1.3 metres high, rectangular in section, with both arms broken off. It was one of four set up by Sir William Petre, who bought Brent Manor from Buckfast Abbey in 1557 after the Dissolution, and it marked the bounds of the Forest of Dartmoor in 1557 and 1786.

A two-roomed shelter, 11.5 metres long by 4.7 metres wide with a fireplace and chimney, was built into the cairn itself, which disturbed it. It was put up about 1847 by workers at the Red Lake peat ties, connected with the Naphtha Works at Shipley, who also reused the cross as a chimney lintel. After the building was partly destroyed the cross was put back up.

There seems to have been some encroachment onto Duchy land by Sir William Petre, with boundary maps varying through time between the boundary marks on this cairn and its neighbour, Eastern White Barrow.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1002661 (updated 18 November 2015), which cites Butler, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities, vol 4 (1993), page 159, and PastScape 441456 and 441459.

• Period: Bronze Age
• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1002661)
• Grid reference: SX 6535 6547 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)