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Stonehenge: The Story So Far, Julian Richards

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<< Our Photo Pages >> Wittaburrow Cairn - Cairn in England in Devon

Submitted by AngieLake on Tuesday, 11 September 2012  Page Views: 2332

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Wittaburrow Cairn Alternative Name: Grinsell Widecombe in the Moor 15; Whittaborrow; Butler (map 9.9.1)
Country: England
NOTE: This site is 0.591 km away from the location you searched for.

County: Devon Type: Cairn
Nearest Town: Ashburton  Nearest Village: Widecombe in the Moor
Map Ref: SX73347521
Latitude: 50.562875N  Longitude: 3.789667W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
3 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
5

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Wittaburrow Cairn
Wittaburrow Cairn submitted by AngieLake : Wittaburrow Cairn's western flanks with distant Haytor and Saddle Tor in shade and Rippon Tor in middle distance. (Vote or comment on this photo)
This cairn high up on Wittaburrow hill is visible from some distance and I'd noticed it while walking to Tunhill Rocks.

Butler, in his 'Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities - Volume One, the East' [1991], says:
"Large cairns such as this, with a diameter of 22 m, are not very easy to demolish, but generations of visitors have certainly made some progress here. The cairn is composed of particularly small stones, easily lifted, which have been cast aside in all directions in search of the pot of gold. However, the remains still dominate the summit, as impressive as its three giant neighbours visible across the valley on the crest of Rippon Tor. As with those cairns, this also has a junior partner. A low mound of stone 5.0 m across and 0.3 m high, with a square pit at the centre lies 30 m to the south-east."

Decided to check it out for Megalithic Portal, and kill three birds with one stone: Top Tor Cairns, Blackslade Down Cairn and Cist, and Wittaburrow Cairn. A very nice walk.

As recorded in Top Tor Cairns site page: travelling westwards, I parked at the high panoramic car park just after Harefoot Cross on OS map, at the top right of Widecombe hill . (Care should be taken pulling over on the bend, and watch out for straying ponies!)

Just cross the road and head due south, uphill towards Top Tor. Keep going along the ridge to Pil Tor, then pick a track through the bracken that leads towards Wittaburrow, also to south.
I stood on top of Pil Tor rocks and looked down to find the pathway, but missed the intended one and eventually found myself nearly at Blackslade Ford, where there were two marker stones for a medieval farmhouse, which Butler mentions in his book as 'Blackslade Longhouse', but very little of that building remains today.

This was not a bad detour as just above here runs the gritted track to Tunhill from Blackslade Ford, though on checking the OS map, it goes on to join the Hemsworthy Gate to Coldeast Cross road, making it an option for those who don't want to walk across the Top Tor/Pil Tor ridge.

I joined this track heading WNW around the lower contours of Wittaburrow, and found Blackslade Cairn and Cist just to the right, more or less in line with the corner of the drystone wall surrounding the newtake to my left.
The cairn was fairly ruinous but the four stones of the cist were in place and a slab nearby may have been part of the lid.

Taking a track up to the summit of Wittaburrow, at first it was hard to see where the cairn was situated (false summits!)... but between two outcrops of rock the cairn suddenly came into view.
It is quite large and must have been pretty huge before a lot of the stones were robbed to make the nearby newtake walls. Just to the SE of it is a tiny cairn with a possible cist still just about visible. (Butler's "square pit" isn't obvious these days.)
Great views all around.

While walking up to the summit via Wittaburrow's northern slopes I noticed two areas of scattered stones that might have been remains of hut circles, though Butler mentions a NW-running reave crossing that area, so they were probably remains of this.
Away from the main cairn, I noticed lots of scattered stones on the west-facing slope at the north west end of the summit contour area. This made me wonder if there had once been a summit cairn at that end, but it is probably clitter.

Update December 2019: This cairn is featured on the Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks (PDW) website - see their entry for the Wittaburrow Cairn. It is also recorded as Pastscape Monument No. 445132, and as MDV7537 (Cairn south of Wittaburrow) on the Devon and Dartmoor HER.
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Wittaburrow Cairn
Wittaburrow Cairn submitted by Bladup : Wittaburrow Cairn. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Wittaburrow Cairn
Wittaburrow Cairn submitted by Bladup : Wittaburrow Cairn, It looked like "something" had at some point been built into the side of the cairn. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Wittaburrow Cairn
Wittaburrow Cairn submitted by Bladup : Wittaburrow Cairn. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Wittaburrow Cairn
Wittaburrow Cairn submitted by Bladup (Vote or comment on this photo)

Wittaburrow Cairn
Wittaburrow Cairn submitted by Bladup (Vote or comment on this photo)

Wittaburrow Cairn
Wittaburrow Cairn submitted by AngieLake : This slightly bleaker view of the cairn's NW face shows what could possibly be kerb stones in the foreground.

Wittaburrow Cairn
Wittaburrow Cairn submitted by AngieLake : You don't need to look far (here near the smaller cairn) to see where some of the stones went! This is an extremely long wall, surrounding a 'newtake'.

Wittaburrow Cairn
Wittaburrow Cairn submitted by AngieLake : Looking down at the central area of the second, small cairn to approx SE of the main cairn. Butler described it as: "A low mound of stones 5.0 m across and 0.3 m high, with a square pit at the centre lies 30 m to the south-east." I did look around to make sure this was the one, and presume he measured the "30 m" from the centre of the large cairn.

Wittaburrow Cairn
Wittaburrow Cairn submitted by AngieLake : The clitter that lies on the western side of the N-Westerly area of the summit contours. I wondered if these stones had possibly come from a previous summit cairn in that area.

Wittaburrow Cairn
Wittaburrow Cairn submitted by AngieLake : Wittaburrow Cairn with its baby neighbour and the view towards Pil Tor.

Wittaburrow Cairn
Wittaburrow Cairn submitted by AngieLake : On the stony track that leads from Blackslade Ford to Tunhill, heading WNW to find Blackslade Cairn and Cist (which is found to the right of the track, approx on the crest of this rise), and access the track up to Wittaburrow Cairn to its left. That must be Pil Tor's rocks on the right, and the track between the bracken which I'd come down.

Wittaburrow Cairn
Wittaburrow Cairn submitted by AngieLake : The gritted or stony track from the Coldeast Cross to Hemsworthy Gate road, that I'd joined near Blackslade Ford.

Wittaburrow Cairn
Wittaburrow Cairn submitted by AngieLake : This was the first closer view I got of Wittaburrow Cairn.

Wittaburrow Cairn
Wittaburrow Cairn submitted by AngieLake : To the left and right of the uphill track to Wittaburrow I noticed two areas of random stones, which were probably part of a reave, though they resembled the ruins of a hut. Here looking towards Rippon Tor.

Wittaburrow Cairn
Wittaburrow Cairn submitted by AngieLake : Going down the track that led slightly to the east of south, I nearly reached Blackslade Ford, and found this stone marking the position of Blackslade Longhouse (as mentioned by Butler). Its ruined walls are still visible to the left here, and the track from the ford to Tunhill makes easier walking to Wittaburrow (and Blackslade cairn and cist) in front and above here.

Wittaburrow Cairn
Wittaburrow Cairn submitted by AngieLake : Wittaburrow Cairn stands out on the summit ahead, while a pony takes a rest beside the rocks of Pil Tor. The land between dips down into a shallow valley, marked Blackslade Down on the OS map.

Wittaburrow Cairn
Wittaburrow Cairn submitted by AngieLake : Looking south from Top Tor, Wittaburrow Cairn (centre of shot on lighter-coloured hill) is just visible in the far distance, with Pil Tor in middle distance.

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 308m NNE 12° Blackslade Down Cairn and Cist* Cist (SX7341275510)
 605m NNW 344° Tunhill Rocks* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX7318975796)
 787m NNE 32° Foales Arrishes* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX73777587)
 1.2km N 6° Top Tor row Stone Row / Alignment (SX735764)
 1.3km NE 36° Seven Lords' Lands* Stone Circle (SX74127623)
 1.3km N 9° Top Tor Cairns* Cairn (SX7357476472)
 1.4km ENE 73° Rippon Tor* Cairn (SX74667558)
 1.8km WNW 290° Dunstone Cup Stone Rock Art (SX71677585)
 2.0km S 172° Buckland Ridge South Ring Cairn (SX73577324)
 2.1km S 174° Ten Commandments Stone* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (SX735731)
 2.2km NW 315° Saxon Well* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (SX718768)
 2.3km S 175° Stidwell* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (SX735729)
 3.1km N 351° Chinkwell Tor Cairn* Cairn (SX7293078250)
 3.6km N 11° Hound Tor Ring Cairn* Ring Cairn (SX7409778770)
 3.7km NE 35° Smallacombe Rocks Settlement* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX7558378211)
 3.8km NNE 18° Hound Tor Deserted Medieval Village* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX74627878)
 3.9km NNE 13° Hound Tor Enclosure* Causewayed Enclosure (SX74307897)
 3.9km NW 322° Hamel Down Cairn and Cist* Cairn (SX7100878345)
 4.4km NE 47° Haytor Down Ring Cairn (SX76617814)
 4.5km NW 325° Hamel Down Beacon cairn* Cairn (SX70837891)
 4.6km NE 37° Black Hill Cairns* Cairn (SX762788)
 4.6km NW 324° Blackaton Down south (Hamel Down)* Cairn (SX70737904)
 4.7km WSW 243° Sherberton Common Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX691732)
 4.7km NW 324° Blackaton Down north (Hamel Down)* Cairn (SX70687909)
 4.8km W 263° Corndon Down N Cairns* Barrow Cemetery (SX68587473)
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