Ancient Monuments

History on the Ground

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Brisworthy stone circle

A Scheduled Monument in Meavy, Devon

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Coordinates

Latitude: 50.4716 / 50°28'17"N

Longitude: -4.024 / 4°1'26"W

OS Eastings: 256466.940589

OS Northings: 65488.966915

OS Grid: SX564654

Mapcode National: GBR Q1.TQ6B

Mapcode Global: FRA 27GT.25B

Entry Name: Brisworthy stone circle

Scheduled Date: 4 February 1953

Last Amended: 16 October 1991

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1012227

English Heritage Legacy ID: 10594

County: Devon

Civil Parish: Meavy

Traditional County: Devon

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Devon

Details

Large circular arrangements of upright stones set into the ground were built
for ceremonial or funerary purposes. On Dartmoor they are often found in
association with stone alignments and burial monuments. They are thought to
date mainly to the Bronze Age, and specifically to the late third or second
millennium BC.
The Brisworthy stone circle stands close to a cairn and within a few hundred
metres of a stone alignment, near the boundary of enclosed farmland north-
east of Brisworthy. It was re-erected in 1909, at which time there were four
stones standing and eighteen fallen and possible traces of three others. In
its restored form it is 27m by 24m in diameter and consists of twenty-four
stones from 0.3m to 1.4m in height and from 0.6m to 0.9m in width. Worth
suggests that there would have been forty-two stones originally, the
present gaps on the south side are probably the result of robbing during the
building of the enclosure wall to the south.

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, major 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.
The Dartmoor stone circles are an important part of the national pattern of
distribution of these monuments. Although partly restored, the Brisworthy
stone circle is a good surviving example of its kind.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
SX 56 NE 005,

Source: Historic England

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