GLADMAN
Denise Crosby came to mind.... funnily enough.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
There is just something so hauntingly, well, primaeval about these tors...
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Still quite a fair bit left, despite the damage.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Looking into the sun (the irony was not lost upon the viewer) approx SW towards the prosaic Dartmeet... where east meets west... or two become one, to quote those Spicy master 90’s philosophers.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
The great tor cairn surmounting Yar Tor.... a West Country speciality-variant of the upland monument.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Northern terminal cairn.... marked as ‘Tumulus’ on the map. Looking approx south.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
The ‘Money Pit’s cist with what I took to be displaced capstone.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
The cairn-circle near the southern extremity of the row at SX61177386, apparently known locally as the ‘Money Pit‘
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
The crags of Yar Tor rise beyond, the southern (left hand) of which possess a large – albeit mutilated – cairn.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
This multiple row has been much disrupted.... however there’s still a significant number of orthostats in situ, looking approx south. Note the ease of access...
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
At c1,364ft the summit of Yar Tor is an excellent viewpoint, particularly looking approx south-westward to Dartmeet.... although it has to be said that the vista to the east across the stone row to the massive cairns gracing Corndon Tor is not without interest either.
Furthermore, the summit is crowned by a rather substantial cairn, albeit one that has clearly been rather buggered about with by all and sundry over the years. Damn them to blazes!
According to Pastscape:
“Standing up to 2.0m high this cairn stands on the southern outcrop of Yar Tor and comprises a large irregular stony mound now spread and much altered by recent interference. The cairn has a footprint of over 23m. The central area has been hollowed and re-modelled”. [Newman, P 14-MAR-2008 EH Archaeological Field Investigation]
This was, once upon a time, clearly a very substantial cairn – now, but a fragment remains. Guess this is what happens to things when there’s no political capital to be made by ostentatious ‘rebellion’. One can thus only assume there are ulterior motives to the latter? Shame on those who only see but a fragment themselves... of the much bigger picture.
The setting, nonetheless, is fine... incorporate within a circular walk taking in the great Rippon Tor cairns and Horridge Common. Too sad to contemplate on its own. In more ways than one.
The excellent cist at SX613735 (as shown on the 1:25k map) – reckon I accidentally had exposure compensation applied since these are rubbish pictures. Suffice to say the monument was far from rubbish.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Into the sun... glare on Dartmoor. What new sorcery is this?
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
The southern of the three cairns.... at SX620720. Looking roughly north.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Really struggled to capture adequate images of these cairns... but there you are. SX620723
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
