Details

This monument includes a tor cairn situated on the summit of Corn Ridge. The
cairn includes a bank of small to medium-sized stones surrounding a large
rock outcrop known as Branscombe's Loaf. The ring bank survives as a 1.5m-
wide and 0.5m-high rubble spread defining an internal area measuring 18m in
diameter. The rock outcrop or tor measures 12m east to west by 4m north to
south and stands up to 4m high. This cairn forms part of a cairn cemetery
including two round cairns, two tor cairns and two ring cairns.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Dartmoor is the largest expanse of open moorland in southern Britain and,
because of exceptional conditions of preservation, it is also one of the most
complete examples of an upland relict landscape in the whole country. The
great wealth and diversity of archaeological remains provides direct evidence
for human exploitation of the Moor from the early prehistoric period onwards.
The well-preserved and often visible relationship between settlement sites,
land boundaries, trackways, ceremonial and funerary monuments as well as later
industrial remains, gives significant insights into successive changes in the
pattern of land use through time.
Tor cairns are ceremonial monuments dating to the Early and Middle Bronze Age
(c.2000-1000 BC). They were constructed as ring banks of stone rubble, up to
35m in external diameter, sometimes with entrances and external ditches, and
roughly concentric around natural outcrops or tors. In some cases a kerb of
edge-set stones bounded the inner edge of the bank, and the area between the
bank and the outcrop was sometimes in-filled by laying down a platform of
stone rubble or turves. Excavated examples have revealed post-holes and pits
within the area defined by the ring-bank, some containing burial evidence, and
scatters of Bronze Age artefacts concentrated around the central tor. Tor
cairns usually occur as isolated monuments, though several are associated with
broadly contemporary cairn cemeteries. They are very rare nationally with only
40-50 known examples concentrated on the higher moors of Devon and Cornwall,
where their situation in prominent locations makes them a major visual element
in the modern landscape. As a rare monument type, all surviving examples are
considered worthy of preservation.

The tor cairn surrounding Branscombe's Loaf survives well and contains
important archaeological and environmental information relating to the
monument and the landscape in which it was erected. This cairn forms part of
a cairn cemetery containing two round cairns, two tor cairns and types of ring
cairn. Such a diverse range of cairn types within a single cemetery is
unusual.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Turner, J R, 'Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings' in Ring Cairns, Stone Circles and Related Monuments on Dartmoor, , Vol. 48, (1990), 34

Source: Historic England