Billy Fear

This double row with terminal cairn and a former cist is an interesting one as it has been incorporated so to link 2 later enclosures. There’s also a hut circle touching it near the northern end. The row was originally about 225m long and runs North-South.

The row is about 500m long and has a ring cairn at its southern end, a fallen terminal pillar at its northern end. It is intersected by a leat and a field wall in the northern section.

The summit cairn is incorporated into the bedrock outcrop. There are 2 large slabs errected on the south westerly side. The cairn is part of the Pupers Reave.

This is a much re-shaped cairn with no apparent organised structure, and some doubt its antiquity.
Non the less the view is spectacular, one my favorites.

This once rather large circle has only 4 stones remaining upright situated in the south-east. The circle probably had a diameter of around 25 m. 100 meters to the South East is a possible standing stone of 1m height. Apart from this there seems to be no other pre-historic structure close by.

I measured the stone at 2.30m above the packing stones. It is one of probably only 4 menhirs on the Moor that appear not being part of a row or other complex.

Snowdon is made up by 4 cairns running roughly North-South. They are a prominent horizon feature viewed from the East as far as Ashburton.
The cairns increase in diameter towards the South and the 3 southernly cairns are spaced about 120m apart from each other, whereas the northernly one is about 175m away from the nearest neighbour. The most northenly cairm is not on the OS map.

I managed to witness a fantastic sunrise for the Summer Solstice in 2004. But the sun did not rise in line with the row. It came up quite a bit North of it. It didn’t take any of it’s magic away especially as there was ground frost around. Summer in Dartmoor!
It would be quite interesting to go for the Winter Solstice sunset and stand at the bottom end of the row.

My guess is that the longstone was the terminal stone of the row, with a cairn circle at it’s end. It reminds me of the Down Tor complex(though different orientation).
There are a couple of big slabs lying around which could have been part of the cairn circle.