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One of a number of cairns at Black Pool

A Scheduled Monument in Ugborough, Devon

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Coordinates

Latitude: 50.4074 / 50°24'26"N

Longitude: -3.8927 / 3°53'33"W

OS Eastings: 265602.383865

OS Northings: 58101.880063

OS Grid: SX656581

Mapcode National: GBR Q9.3V40

Mapcode Global: FRA 27QZ.C8V

Entry Name: One of a number of cairns at Black Pool

Scheduled Date: 7 October 1991

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1012232

English Heritage Legacy ID: 10545

County: Devon

Civil Parish: Ugborough

Traditional County: Devon

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Devon

Church of England Parish: Ugborough St Peter

Church of England Diocese: Exeter

Details

Many examples of prehistoric funerary monuments are preserved on Dartmoor,
mostly dating to the Bronze Age (c.2500-500 BC). To celebrate or commemorate
the dead, mounds of earth or stone were piled in a roughly hemispherical
shape over the burial, which was sometimes contained in a small rectangular
structure, or cist, made of stone slabs. Some monuments also include
kerbstones marking the outer edge of the mound and a surrounding ditch.
This is one of a number of cairns which lie near the waterhole of Black
Pool, located in the valley between Butterdon Hill and Western Beacon. The
cairn lies east of the waterhole and is oval in shape. It consists of stone
and earth, now turf-covered, and is 7m by 5m and is 0.3m high, with traces
of a retaining kerb.

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.
These cairns form a well-preserved group occupying a position by a
waterhole on the lower ground between two hills. Their relationship to other
monuments of the same type, the cairn groups on Butterdon Hill and Western
Beacon in particular, indicates the wealth of evidence relating to the
ritual side of prehistoric life on this part of the Moor.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, 'Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings' in Dartmoor Barrows, , Vol. 36, (1978)
Other
Devon County SMR (SX 65 NE 010),

Source: Historic England

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