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: 50.427 / 50°25'37"N
Longitude: -3.8883 / 3°53'17"W
OS Eastings: 265971.786181
OS Northings: 60274.390427
OS Grid: SX659602
Mapcode National: GBR Q9.2GYG
Mapcode Global: FRA 27RX.M0G
Entry Name: Cairn on Glasscombe Ball
Scheduled Date: 7 October 1991
Source: Historic England
Source ID: 1012470
English Heritage Legacy ID: 10562
County: Devon
Civil Parish: South Brent
Traditional County: Devon
Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Devon
Church of England Parish: Ugborough St Peter
Church of England Diocese: Exeter
Many examples of funerary monuments are preserved on Dartmoor, mostly dating
to the Bronze age (c.2500-500BC). 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 a surrounding ditch. This large cairn, on
the southern brow of Glasscombe Ball, is 22 m. in diameter and 1.5 m. high,
it consists of a mound of stones on an earth and stone base and is similar
in form to the other large hilltop cairns in this area.
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 cairn
on Glasscombe Ball is a well-preserved example and occupies a prominent
position on the brow of the hill. Its relationship to other cairns and a
stone row indicates the wealth of evidence relating to the ritual side of
life on this part of the Moor.
Source: Historic England
Other
Devon County SMR SX66SE-008,
Source: Historic England
Other nearby scheduled monuments