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Two stone hut circles north of Spanish Lake, Lee Moor

A Scheduled Monument in Shaugh Prior, Devon

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Coordinates

Latitude: 50.4618 / 50°27'42"N

Longitude: -3.993 / 3°59'34"W

OS Eastings: 258633.893293

OS Northings: 64343.516946

OS Grid: SX586643

Mapcode National: GBR Q4.7645

Mapcode Global: FRA 27JT.VKN

Entry Name: Two stone hut circles north of Spanish Lake, Lee Moor

Scheduled Date: 1 December 1965

Last Amended: 5 December 1991

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1013058

English Heritage Legacy ID: 10695

County: Devon

Civil Parish: Shaugh Prior

Traditional County: Devon

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Devon

Details

Low stone walls or banks enclosing a circular internal floor area form the
remains of timber and turf or thatch-roofed dwellings occupied by farmers of
the Prehistoric period. They may occur singly or in larger groups and were
sometimes built within a surrounding boundary bank or enclosure. On Dartmoor,
the long tradition of building stone-based round houses can be traced back to
the second millennium BC, probably from 1700 BC onwards.
These two hut circles lie on a west-facing slope at the western end of Lee
Moor, north of Spanish Lake. They are built of earth and stone and are 5m and
4.5m in diameter with walls 1m in thickness and 0.5m in height and entrances
in the west and north-west respectively. The larger, eastern hut circle has
traces of a bank leading from its north-east side and curving back towards the
other hut. There are two cairns close by and other cairns and occupation
sites a few hundred metres to the north.

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 provide 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 two hut circles are well-preserved examples and with other settlements
and cairns in the vicinity, indicate the wealth of evidence for occupation and
the ritual side of life on this part of the Moor.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Devon County SMR SX 56 SE 16,

Source: Historic England

Other nearby scheduled monuments

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