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Latitude: 50.4718 / 50°28'18"N
Longitude: -4.0227 / 4°1'21"W
OS Eastings: 256561.901
OS Northings: 65503.58967
OS Grid: SX565655
Mapcode National: GBR Q1.TQK7
Mapcode Global: FRA 27GT.2NM
Entry Name: Cairn west of Legis Lake
Scheduled Date: 29 October 1991
Source: Historic England
Source ID: 1012421
English Heritage Legacy ID: 10588
County: Devon
Civil Parish: Meavy
Traditional County: Devon
Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Devon
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 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 surrounding ditch.
This cairn lies to the west of Legis Lake, just north of the boundary with
enclosed land to the south. It is a grass-covered mound 8m in diameter and
0.3m in height, with five stones of a retaining kerb around it. It lies
within 100m of a stone circle and within a few hundred metres of a stone row
and other 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
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 is a well-preserved example of a cairn on the brow of the valley slope,
its relationship to other monuments indicates the wealth of evidence
relating to the ritual side of 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), 167
Other
Devon SMR, REF SX56NE-065,
Source: Historic England
Other nearby scheduled monuments