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Inscribed Across the Landscape: The Cursus Monuments of Great Britain

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<< Our Photo Pages >> Gidleigh Chambered Cairn - Chambered Cairn in England in Devon

Submitted by enkidu41 on Sunday, 08 August 2004  Page Views: 6463

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Gidleigh Chambered Cairn Alternative Name: Buttern Hill Chambered Cairn 1; Gidleigh South Chambered Cairn
Country: England County: Devon Type: Chambered Cairn
Nearest Town: Okehampton  Nearest Village: Gidleigh
Map Ref: SX65678856
Latitude: 50.681149N  Longitude: 3.902736W
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
2 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.
2 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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Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by davep : Gidleigh South Chambered Cairn OS Map: SX65678855 NMR record: SX 68 NE 74 The remains of a Neolithic chambered cairn on Buttern Hill. The cairn survives as a mound standing up to 0.6 metres high. The chamber and associated entrance passage include seven orthostats, two of which form a portaled entrance. A leat runs to the west of the cairn. There is a second Chambered tomb Gidleigh Nort... (Vote or comment on this photo)
A ruinous chambered cairn on the eastern side of Buttern Hill, west of Gidleigh village.

The remains of the chamber comprise a clearly defined passage of two pairs of stones about 6' long by 3' wide with the entrance restricted by a pair of cross slabs. Beyond the entrance lies a large flat slab, partly turf-covered, and the visible tops of others almost fully buried. These may be the remains of the chamber walls.

It may be reached by about a mile walk starting off along a track leading from a minor road running south west out of Gidleigh and then turning right at the end of the field boundaries to walk north uphill on the open moor.

Update October 2019: This chambered cairn is featured on the Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks (PDW) website - see their entry for the Gidleigh - South Chambered Tomb. PDW notes "(this is) the remains of a Neolithic chambered cairn on Buttern Hill. The cairn survives as a mound standing up to 0.6 metres high. The chamber and associated entrance passage include seven orthostats, two of which form a portaled entrance. A leat runs to the west of the cairn".

The tomb is also recorded as Pastscape Monument No. 443681 and as MDV6123 (Gidleigh South Chambered Tomb) on the Devon and Dartmoor HER.

This site is also scheduled as Historic England List ID 1021216 (Chambered cairn 830m south of Buttern).
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Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by theCaptain : Gidleigh Chambered Cairn viewed looking along the chamber towards the east. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by theCaptain : Gidleigh Chambered Cairn viewed looking northeast. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by theCaptain : Overview of Gidleigh Chambered Cairn in its surroundings. Seen here looking towards the east. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by theCaptain : Gidleigh Chambered Cairn viewed looking southeast. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by theCaptain : Gidleigh Chambered Cairn, on the slopes of Buttern Hill. Here viewed looking northwest.

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by theCaptain : Gidleigh Chambered Cairn viewed looking west, up the hill. The two entrance portal stones clearly visible.

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by theCaptain : Gidleigh Chambered Cairn viewed looking south. The two entrance portal stones clearly visible.

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by theCaptain : Gidleigh Chambered Cairn viewed looking southeast

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by Bladup : Gidleigh Chambered Cairn, Looking East

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by davep : Gidleigh South Chambered Cairn seen from the other side. That is my small rucksack in the background for scale (or I forgot it was in shot!). These pictures were taken 9th June 2013. There seems to be considerably less overgrowth than in the pictures uploaded by the Captain and consequentially it is much easier to see the structure of the tomb.

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by enkidu41 : SX 6566 8855 This has a clearly defined passage of two pairs of stones about 6' long by 3' wide. The entrance to the chamber (the far end in the picture) is restricted by a pair of cross slabs. Beyond this entrance lies a large flat slab, partly turf-covered, and the visible tops of others almost fully buried. These may be the remains of the chamber walls.

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by Bladup : Gidleigh Chambered Cairn, I'd been here a few times in the past but always without a camera, It wasn't covered in bracken so i took a few photo's in the Dartmoor Drizzle

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by Bladup : Gidleigh Chambered Cairn, Looking South

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by Bladup : Gidleigh Chambered Cairn, Looking very boat like from the Northern end of the monument

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by Bladup : Gidleigh Chambered Cairn, Looking South West along the chamber

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by Bladup : Gidleigh Chambered Cairn, Looking South West

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by Bladup : Gidleigh Chambered Cairn, Looking North East along the Chamber

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by Postman : The ferny chamber.

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by Postman : Looking over the chamber to the eastern edge of Dartmoor

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by Postman : Passage stones?

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by Postman : Looking through the portal stones into the chamber

Gidleigh Chambered Cairn
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn submitted by Postman : Orient yourself with the wall and it's easy to find.

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 174m WNW 282° Buttern Hill Hut Circle* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX655886)
 455m NNE 24° Gidleigh North Chambered Tomb (SX6586688971)
 483m W 267° Buttern Hill Possible Menhir* Standing Stone (Menhir) (SX6518688544)
 660m SSW 211° Buttern Hill settlement* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX6531488003)
 734m W 262° Buttern E* Stone Circle (SX6493988475)
 860m S 177° Gidleigh Common Cairns Cairn (SX657877)
 1.2km S 189° Scorhill* Stone Circle (SX65468738)
 1.4km S 187° Scorhill Cairn and Rows* Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX65488721)
 1.4km W 270° Buttern W* Stone Circle (SX643886)
 1.5km S 185° The Tolmen Stone (Dartmoor)* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (SX65508708)
 1.7km N 6° Higher Shilstone Hut Circle* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX659902)
 1.9km SSE 156° The Round Pound* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX66398685)
 2.2km N 1° Throwleigh Common prehistoric settlement and field system* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX65779078)
 2.3km SSE 151° Modern Stone Circle near Kestor Rock* Modern Stone Circle etc (SX66748652)
 2.4km S 175° Shovel Down stone circle* Stone Circle (SX65828620)
 2.4km S 172° Shovel Down row 2* Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX65958620)
 2.4km S 171° Shovel Down row 1* Stone Row / Alignment (SX660862)
 2.4km SSE 157° Kestor Settlement* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX66538633)
 2.4km S 173° Shovel Down row 3* Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX65898616)
 2.4km SSE 158° Kes Tor Cairn* Cairn (SX6653286277)
 2.4km SSE 157° Kes Tor Rock Basin* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (SX66558628)
 2.5km WNW 290° White Moor Stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (SX6335289476)
 2.5km S 172° Shovel Down Fourfold Circle* Stone Circle (SX65958603)
 2.6km WNW 291° White Moor Cairn* Cairn (SX6330289534)
 2.6km S 172° Shovel Down* Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX65958599)
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Re: Gidleigh Chambered Cairn by TheCaptain on Friday, 02 April 2010
(User Info | Send a Message)
Gidleigh Chambered Cairn, Buttern Hill, Dartmoor, Devon
Visited Sunday, 14th March 2010.
SX 65668 88559, Altitude 364m, Access 3, Ambience 4, Condition 2

This is clearly the remains of a chambered cairn and quite easy to find below the Southeastern corner of the self contained newtake field. It looked to me that there were 6 stone slabs set on edge parallel to each other, three each side about a metre apart. At the southern end are two more slabs, set across the passage, but with a gap between them making the entrance. Beyond these two portal stones are what are perhaps remains of the chamber with a fallen capstone. There are several other large stones which may have once been a part of the chamber, or perhaps part of the structure of the cairn, which is now well destroyed.

Although easy to find on a nice spring day, this cairn probably gets quite well hidden amongst ferns, gorse and other growth during the summer months. It is also in quite a boggy area, where a lot of water is draining down from the higher moor, although the cairn itself is substantially dry.

There is a second, and much more destroyed, chambered cairn a few hundred metres further down the hillside, but which is difficult to find, and has been incorporated into parts of various ancient field and boundary walls. I didn’t bother to go and spend ages looking for it.

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