Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row

Also known as:
Ringmoor Stone Circle and Stone Row
Nearest town:
Plympton (9km S)
OS reference:
SX563659
OS sheet:
202
Latitude:
50° 28' 28.75 N
Longitude:
4° 1' 31.39 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by ironstone

Just came across this image today; it reminded me of a very pleasant morning on the moor 13(!) years ago.

ironstone
ironstone Aug 31, 2020
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by ironstone

A small animal’s eye-view of the final approach along the row to this delightfully small cairn-circle.

ironstone
ironstone Oct 4, 2018
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by postman

At long last, Ringmoor, Eric kindly ducks into the central grasses.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jun 27, 2018
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by postman

Legis and Trowelsworthy Tors are the rocks in the beyond.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jun 27, 2018
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by postman

Looking towards the end of the row from about halfway up it.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jun 27, 2018
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by postman

Looking up the row from near the bottom/end.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jun 27, 2018
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by postman

All of the row leading down hill from the circle.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jun 27, 2018
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by postman

The last two stones of the row, it was too hot to be bothering with completion.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jun 27, 2018
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by thesweetcheat

The end of the row (entering pic bottom right) and the terminal cairn circle.

Image credit: A. Brookes (23.9.2013)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Dec 1, 2013
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by thesweetcheat

Looking east across the cairn circle towards Legis Tor.

Image credit: A. Brookes (12.7.2010)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 9, 2010
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by thesweetcheat

Approaching along the row from the north in heavy rain.

Image credit: A. Brookes (12.7.2010)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 9, 2010
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by thesweetcheat

The pre-molar like stone on the west of the cairn circle.

Image credit: A. Brookes (12.7.2010)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 9, 2010
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by thesweetcheat

The diminuitive terminal stone at the north end of the row.

Image credit: A. Brookes (12.7.2010)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 9, 2010
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by GLADMAN

Ancient stone and local inhabitants.... we’ve got our eyes on you, boy.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Feb 7, 2010
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by Lubin

The ring cairn with Sheeps Tor in the centre background.

Image credit: Peter Castle ©
Lubin
Lubin Jun 1, 2007
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by Lubin

The last few stones of the row and the cairn circle.

Image credit: Peter Castle ©
Lubin
Lubin Jun 1, 2007
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by Lubin

Looking north along the row from around half way.

Image credit: Peter Castle ©
Lubin
Lubin Jun 1, 2007
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by Moth

Sunday 3 July 2005 Looking across the circle with the row on the far side, centre, marching off NNE across the moor

Image credit: Tim Clark
Moth
Moth Jan 9, 2006
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by Moth

Sunday 3 July 2005 The circle at the end of the row nearest Brisworthy, looking roughly SE

Image credit: Tim Clark
Moth
Moth Jan 9, 2006
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by Moth

Sunday 3 July 2005 The circle looking SSW along the end of the row

Image credit: Tim Clark
Moth
Moth Jan 9, 2006
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by Moth

Sunday 3 July 2005 An attempt to showthe length of the row, looking NNE away from the circle. Jane is around 2/3 to 3/4 along the row

Image credit: Tim Clark
Moth
Moth Jan 8, 2006
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by Moth

Sunday 3 July 2005 A fair portion of the row looking SSW, with the circle at the end just visible on the horizon

Image credit: Tim Clark
Moth
Moth Jan 8, 2006
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by Moth

Sunday 3 July 2005 The far part of the row from the reave looking NNE, away from the circle

Image credit: Tim Clark
Moth
Moth Jan 8, 2006
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by Moth

Sunday 3 July 2005 Looking roughly south from little cairn circle at SX551661 to ‘main’ Ringmoor circle at end of stone row

Image credit: Tim Clark
Moth
Moth Jan 8, 2006
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by pure joy

Ringmoor Stone Row – 25.6.2004 – the terminal stone at the north of the row (looking back up the row)

Image credit: Martin Bull
pure joy
pure joy Jul 4, 2004
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by pure joy

Ringmoor Stone Row – 25.6.2004 – some of the larger stones, looking down the second part of the stone row (i.e. after the reave)

Image credit: Martin Bull
pure joy
pure joy Jul 4, 2004
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by pure joy

Ringmoor Stone Row – 25.6.2004 – looking down the second part of the stone row (i.e. after the reave)

Image credit: Martin Bull
pure joy
pure joy Jul 4, 2004
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by pure joy

Ringmoor Cairn Circle – 25.6.2004 – from the west, looking towards Legis Tor (on the left hand side) and Little Trowlesorthy Tor (on the right hand side)

Image credit: Martin Bull
pure joy
pure joy Jul 4, 2004
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by greywether

About 220m N of circle. The next visible stone is the location of the next photo. The cairn circle is just visible on the horizon.

greywether
greywether Dec 16, 2003
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by johan

This is the first ‘part’ of the stone row at Ringmoor. The parts are because there is a gap over a ridge, the second photo shows the next part.

Image credit: johan
J
johan Sep 4, 2003
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by johan

Ringmoor stone row, this is the ‘second’ part of the row (see other picture for explanation). That could well be Sheepstor in the distance.

Image credit: johan
J
johan Sep 4, 2003
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by johan

Ringmoor SC, showing the small stones, much smaller than nearby Brisworthy, very angled though.

Image credit: johan
J
johan Sep 4, 2003
Image of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row by johan

Ringmoor. Small but perfectly formed. Drizzlecombe is beyond ‘them thar hills’.

Image credit: johan
J
johan Sep 4, 2003

Articles

Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row

postman
postman Jul 1, 2018

I’ve been a good boy and waited eleven years for my next chance to say hello to Ringmoor, patience is a virtue they say, but having no money is a poor mans excuse for patience.
I’m not going to bother with the kerb circle, TMA doesn’t believe it’s ancient, so to ensure that I have the time to see everything I want, I am willing to sacrifice the maybe kerb circle, Burl seems to believe in it though. Perhaps I should have gave it a few minutes look.
Like Brisworthy this cairn circle was re-erected in 1909, presumably by Rev H.H Breton of Sheepstor. A good man I’m sure.
Eric has taken his leave and hidden amid the tall grass in the middle of the ring, to hide from the sun and my camera, and to rest his poor little feet. No rest for the wicked though, so off I go down the hill north following the stones of the row. An odd row it is too, sometimes a double row, sometimes single, stones this side and stones that side, I can only assume it’s pretty knackered. Like me, I couldn’t even make it to the last stone, I should have, but god I was tired.
Back up the hill to the stone circle, I choose a stone and sit leaning against it, “you can come out now if you want Eric”
“Nah, it’s cool in here”
Strange lad.
Anyway it is time once more to be moving on, there is one more thing I want to look for whilst were here, stupid map says it’s a cairn circle, maybe, we didn’t find it, it was a cist anyway, no wonder we couldn’t find it.

Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row

thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Sep 14, 2010

There’s something quite satisfying about squelching across sodden moors in the pouring rain. Once you’ve accepted you’re going to get wet, there’s no shelter and no short-cut, a sense of purpose kicks in. So with this feeling, I reach the northern end of Ringmoor Down stone row. After the wonders of Drizzlecombe, the tiny terminal stone is surprising, but it shares with Drizzlecombe Row 1 a partial double section (which may not actually be authentic here). Taking pictures is difficult, as the lens gets wet every time I point the camera anywhere but downwards. Eventually I get up to the cairn circle, by which time the rain has got even heavier. This is actually a great little cairn circle, with decently spaced uprights (one of which looks rather as if it might be upside down). The central cairn is badly reduced. I could imagine spending a lot longer here, if it weren’t so wet. Instead I squelch onwards.

Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row

Jane
Jane Jul 10, 2005

Just up the hill from Brisworthy are the monuments at Ringmoor which unlike pure joy, we found easily. A corkingly long stone row with a rather nice cairn circle at one end. As I strode down the row it seemed to never end! We also spotted some other stuff up there, including another small cairn circle.

Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row

pure joy
pure joy Jul 4, 2004

Ringmoor Stone Row and Cairn Circle – 25.6.2004

I thought I was going mad trying to find this. I mean, how hard can it be with a map and compass, good weather, and knowing where you are starting from (Brisworthy Stone Circle)? When I did get here it seemed like a lot more that 300 metres from the Stone Circle. It was probably a mix of it being uphill, across long-ish tufty moorland, and not being able to see the cairn circle until you get pretty close to it (I had mistakenly interpreted the directions from the Megalithic Walks website link below to think it could be seen from all around – it can’t be seen unless you are on the plateau). Don’t be fooled into thinking that stones over to the west might be the ones you want. They aren’t. Just head directly uphill (north or NNW) from the stone circle and you will find Ringmoor.

The cairn circle is nice if a little wild and windswept. You do start to get a feeling of being on the top of the world now, with views all around, and the Princeton TV Transmitter looking like you could reach out and touch it (it’s actually about 8km away). The row leads away from the circle and is very clear. However, I couldn’t find the small kerbed cairn said by Burl to be about 240m along the row. At first I thought I was going mad, but then I seriously started to believe that it could have been destroyed in recent years?

By the by, the black line marked on the 1:25,000 map, going straight through the row, is not a field wall, so don’t expect a large wall as I did. It’s probably a reave; an ancient field boundary ditch and bank.

Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row

greywether
greywether Dec 16, 2003

Burl certainly does call this a 530m row but Jeremy Butler in his epic Dartmoor – Atlas of Antiquities claims it is only 369m long.

The difference, he claims, is due to the the restorer who “mistakenly added 180 yds to its length”. He puts the original ending at the 1.2m high stone in the row of stones N of the low bank some 300m from the cairn circle.

He also claims it was probably a single row originally as in the areas where there is a double alignment some of the stones are set across the row suggesting they were re-erected incorrectly.

Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row

S
stewartb May 11, 2003

This is a wonderful setting consisting of a cairn circle and a stone row.

The circle itself is around 13m in diameter and has 11 stones. It was re-erected in 1909 and some of the stones may not be original.

The row is 530m long and consists of a double line of stones although some have been lost making it a single row in parts.

Folklore

Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row
Stone Row / Alignment
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jun 9, 2004

Ringmoor Down is stuffed with prehistoric remains – the stone row, stone circles, hut circles, round cairns... but do resist the urge to dig them up even though “Whoever shall find the treasure hidden on Ringmoor Down may plough with a golden ploughshare and yoke his oxen with golden cross-sticks.” – this is a saying recorded in 1850 (and put by Grinsell in his ‘Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain’). If I found the treasure I reckon I’d give up farming and pay someone to plough for me with the usual wood and iron kit.

Sites within 20km of Ringmoor Cairn Circle and Stone Row

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