<< Our Photo Pages >> Merrivale circle - Stone Circle in England in Devon
Submitted by Anonymous on Monday, 01 November 2004 Page Views: 14200
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Merrivale circle Alternative Name: Turner G14Country: England County: Devon Type: Stone Circle
Nearest Town: Tavistock Nearest Village: Princetown
Map Ref: SX55357463 Landranger Map Number: 191
Latitude: 50.553484N Longitude: 4.043281W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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deepblue would like to visit
Catrinm visited on 21st Dec 2022 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 4 Visited for the winter solstice sunset 22. Not a clear sky but still atmospheric .
lauraaurora visited on 6th Aug 2022 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 4
lucasn visited on 27th Jun 2019 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 4
Anne T visited on 14th May 2019 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 Access: 4 Merrivale Stone Circle: Will you forgive me for saying I wasn't hugely impressed by this stone circle. For some reason I was expecting the stones to be larger and for it to sit more dramatically in the landscape.
On walking to the circle from the western end of Row 2, we came across an impressively large, black coloured boulder buried in the grass, which does not appear to be marked by Butler. I estimated its grid reference to be SX 55304 74704, or just south of this.
The group walked round the circle and the menhir, looking at the pits in the ground, wondering if these could possibly be the remains of holes for other stones. Dave Parks said he had read somewhere that there was thought to have been a double stone circle here, but no proof had yet been found. He later came back to tell me that Butler has marked the pits on his diagrams of Merrivale, see pages 29-31 inclusive of Volume 3 of "Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities".
I do like Butler's description of the circle: "Their arrangement is markedly eccentric, perhaps deliberately so, with the majority of stones up to a metre off a true circle 19m across and with very variable intervals between" and his notes that the numbers of stones seem to vary across the ages: "several detailed nineteenth century accounts of the site show that the number of stones has actually increased, a most unusual phenomenon, from 9 in the early part of the century, 9 in 1828 (Smith), 10 (1827, Rowe, 1829 Kempe), and 9 (1859 Wilkinson), before reaching the present total of 11 in Worth’s 1895 plan. It seems at least 2 stones have been added, probably by some of the early investigators who were not always particular in recording their restorations, which in any case were often somewhat arbitrary".
Richard13 visited on 1st Jul 2018 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 4
markj99 visited on 28th Nov 2017 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 3 Merrivale Stone Circle is not spectacular. The stones are small, but it is surrounded by more substantial antiquarian sites.
SandyG visited on 19th Oct 2014 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 4
BolshieBoris visited on 1st Jul 1997 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 Access: 4
woodini254 visited on 15th Mar 1994 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 4
graemefield visited on 1st May 1992 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 3
h_fenton rldixon cazzyjane AngieLake TheWhiteRider davidmorgan TheCaptain have visited here
Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3.7 Ambience: 4.2 Access: 3.8
The stones are small, varying in height from 30cm (1 foot) to 50cm (1 foot 6 inches). It is a flattened circle measuring 20.5m (67 feet 5 inches) E-W by 17.8m (58 feet 5 inches). A 3m (10-foot 4-inch) tall slender stone stands at an azimuth of 182 degrees from the centre of the circle, suggesting an attempt for cardinal-point alignment. The axis of the ring is 88 degrees - 268 degrees, a similar suggested alignment.
Access: Just south of the B3357 cross-Dartmoor road, 6km from Tavistock. The circle is a few hundred metres on from the Merrivale stone rows.
Update November 2019: This stone circle is recorded as Pastscape Monument No. 440044, as MDV4998 (Stone circle, Merrivale) on the Devon and Dartmoor HER, and scheduled as Historic England List Entry No. 1013430 (A stone circle, standing stone, cairn, recumbent stone and stone alignment on Longash Common).
This circle is also featured on the Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks (PDW) website - see their entries for
The Pastcape record lists the grid references and types of all 12 of the stones (the 11 in the circle plus the outlier).
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38m S 180° Merrivale 5* Stone Row / Alignment (SX5534974592)
40m S 187° Merrivale 6* Stone Row / Alignment (SX5534474590)
41m SSE 164° Merrivale Menhir* Standing Stone (Menhir) (SX55367459)
44m S 171° Merrivale row 4* Stone Row / Alignment (SX5535674586)
45m SSE 152° Merrivale Second Menhir and Cairn* Standing Stone (Menhir) (SX55377459)
86m NW 323° Cairn south of Stone Row B (Merrivale)* Cairn (SX553747)
122m NE 53° Merrivale Stone Slabs 1 and 2* Stone Row / Alignment (SX55457470)
130m NNW 336° Merrivale NW* Stone Circle (SX55307475)
138m NNE 17° Merrivale SW row 3* Stone Row / Alignment (SX5539474761)
149m NNE 18° Merrivale Centre S* Cairn (SX55407477)
161m NNE 28° Merrivale Centre N* Cairn (SX55437477)
188m NNE 30° Merrivale North Row* Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX55457479)
191m NE 41° Merrivale* Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX55487477)
192m NE 45° Merrivale Cists* Burial Chamber or Dolmen (SX5549074762)
212m N 352° Merrivale N circle* Stone Circle (SX5532674841)
258m NE 53° Merrivale Centre Row* Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX55567478)
261m NE 45° Merrivale NE circle* Stone Circle (SX55547481)
402m NNE 28° Merrivale settlement* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX5555174979)
900m SSE 156° King's Tor* Rock Outcrop (SX557738)
1.0km E 98° Yellowmeade Farm* Cairn (SX56357446)
1.1km WSW 256° Vixen Tor* Cist (SX5424074392)
1.9km WSW 258° Windy Post Cross* Ancient Cross (SX53437428)
2.0km W 267° Barn Hill Cairn (SX53337458)
2.0km NE 49° Mis Tor Farm Cairn (SX56927594)
2.2km NNW 330° Roos Tor Rocks* Rock Outcrop (SX543766)
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