Dean Moor

Nearest town:
Buckfastleigh (5km ENE)
OS reference:
SX683660
OS sheet:
202
Latitude:
50° 28' 42.19 N
Longitude:
3° 51' 22.99 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Dean Moor (Cairn(s)) by GLADMAN

The Eastern White Barrow is top right. Copious prehistoric settlement that-away.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Oct 25, 2020
Image of Dean Moor (Cairn(s)) by GLADMAN

Puper’s Hill’s wondrous tor cairn can be seen top right skyline... those with exceptional peepers might just make out the ‘Heap of Sinners’, centre-left(ish) skyline.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Oct 25, 2020
Image of Dean Moor (Cairn(s)) by GLADMAN

The lower of the two ‘cairns/mounds/whatevers’, with the Avon Reservoir beyond. The colours of the moor under autumnal sunlight are breathtaking.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Oct 25, 2020

Articles

Miscellaneous

Dean Moor
Cairn(s)
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Oct 25, 2020

Starting from the T-junction just SE of Cross Furzes, I furtively made my way across Lambs Down, ultimately bound for Gripper’s Hill. However, I elect to stick to the umbilical security of the obvious ‘Abbot’s Way’ in increasingly violent, driving rain to take stock and wait for the promised early afternoon hiatus of the storm. Anyway, upon beginning the descent to Brockhill Stream two hollow, grassy ‘mounds’ appear to my right, further investigation revealing elements of stone within the turfy mantle.

Sheltering within the upper of the pair from the horizontal downpour (if anything heading at 90 degrees can be said to be moving in a ‘downward motion’, that is) I decide these don’t resemble hut circles imo... although there are enough of them around these parts, to be sure... and the cairn featured upon the 1:25K map doesn’t fit with the location. So what is going on here?

However... interestingly, perhaps... it would appear from Pastscape that at approximately SX683660 (i.e hereabouts):

“Grinsell failed to locate in 1976 a cairn 35yds in circumference which was noted by Crossing”.

[Sources:
( 1a) by Brian Le Messurier 1965 Crossing’s guide to Dartmoor
( 1) Devon Archaeological Society proceedings
(L V Grinsell) 36, 1978 Page(s) 138.]

It does seem rather odd no-one (apart from perhaps the legendary William Crossing) has noticed these before. I’ve assigned a designation of ‘cairns’, pending further insight or subsequent removal. Thoughts, anyone?

Topics

Dean Moor 6
GLADMAN
GLADMAN
Oct 2020

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