This site is entirely user-supported. See how you can help.
We don't have any photos of this monument yet. Why don't you be the first to send us one?
If Google Street View is available, the image is from the best available vantage point looking, if possible, towards the location of the monument. Where it is not available, the satellite view is shown instead.
Latitude: 50.404 / 50°24'14"N
Longitude: -3.8947 / 3°53'40"W
OS Eastings: 265449.20349
OS Northings: 57724.835571
OS Grid: SX654577
Mapcode National: GBR Q9.418V
Mapcode Global: FRA 27QZ.JHV
Entry Name: Cairn near the summit of Western Beacon
Scheduled Date: 25 October 1991
Source: Historic England
Source ID: 1012290
English Heritage Legacy ID: 10609
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
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 cairn lies close to the summit of Western Beacon. It occupies a
position on the summit and consists of a stone and earth base surmounted by
a mound of stones, giving a diameter of 22m and a height of 1.7m. Visitors
have moved stones around on the mound to form shelters.
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
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.
This large cairn is a well preserved example which occupies a prominent
position close to the summit of Western Beacon. Its relationship to other
large cairns and groups on hilltops along the eastern side of the Erme
Valley indicates the wealth of evidence relating to the ritual side of
prehistoric life on this part of the Moor.
Source: Historic England
Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, 'Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings' in Dartmoor Barrows, , Vol. 36, (1978), 172
Other
Devon County SMR (SX65NE-211),
Source: Historic England
Other nearby scheduled monuments