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Weekly Site Picks: A minilithic marathon in the Erme Valley, Southeast Dartmoor
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Submitted by Neil M on Monday, 29 December 2003 Page Views: 6027
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   Stalldon Row submitted by stonedowser
Most site-hounds have a list of places they want to visit as long as their arm. So earlier this year I set off for southeast Dartmoor to walk the length of the world's longest stone row, situated in the Upper Erme Valley on Stall Moor. (A Small Stone Article from 3rd Stone Issue 46, Spring/Summer 2003)
The Erme alley is a jewel in the crown of Dartmoor's highly idiosyncratic landscape. Sites on Dartmoor are notoriously difficult to date because so few dateable artifacts are found associated with them. What is certain however, is that there was an explosion of monument-building in the Bronze and Iron Age. Despite a long history of tinning, mining and clay extraction, particularly in the south of the moor, there are still hundreds, if not thousands, of sites existing in a relatively unspoilt state. Dartmoor’s stone rows are certainly among the most enigmatic.
The Erme Valley can be joined from various points of access along the fringes of the southeast moor. I headed out from above Torr, at SX 625 611, close to the reservoir at New Waste. From here Stalldown stone row, one of the most impressive of Dartmoor’s countless megalithic sites, is just visible below the crest of the hill called Stalldown Barrow. The most southerly stones of the 500 m row, around SX 632 621, are only a 15 minute stroll around the eastern flank of Stalldown Barrow. Despite the fact that most of the stones were flat prior to the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould's speculative reconstruction of the site in 1897, Stalldown stone row is a spectacular monument nonetheless.
Typical of the Dartmoor rows, the monument is aligned more-or-less north-south. The row races towards the crest of Stalldown Barrow, passing by the kerb of a ruinous cairn, and on through a line of cairns which run along the crest of the hill. Just as the land begins to fall away down the northern slope of the hill, the stones increase in size dramatically. Between six and nine feet tall, the last six stones, two of which have fallen, are truly megalithic. From here, at SX 633 626, the mighty vista of the Erme Plains high moor opens up, dropping down into the Erme Valley and rising again into the upland plateau of Stall Moor. Like much of Dartmoor, it is not a place for agoraphobics.
A handful of interesting cairns stand on the lower slopes of the north side of Stalldown Barrow. One, at SX 633 632, is particularly impressive; a low cairn with a megalithic kerb enclosing a sturdy open kist. Crossing Bledge Brook, or dropping lower into the marshy valley bottom, there are signs of prehistoric activity all around. Ancient settlements line the slopes of the valley, each facing out onto the River Erme below.
Heading uphill, and passing through a complex of prehistoric walls, the land opens out onto the flat plateau, on which stands the Stall Moor stone circle, at SX 635 644. Known as The Dancers or the Kiss-In-The-Ring, the circle has 26 stones and encloses a low cairn. A little over 16 m across, most of the stones are below waist height; one 1.6 m tall stone in the north-northwest of the circle is much larger than the others. The circle is the southern terminal of the longest prehistoric stone row in the world, the Upper Erme or Stall Moor stone row. This is a great place to be.
Few of the 1,000 or so remaining stones that form this astonishing monument are large, and many are hidden in the rough Dartmoor grass. Perhaps half of the stones have been removed, or more likely, have fallen and been covered by the always encroaching turf. The size of the stones is of no consequence when the length of this stone row is an incredible 3320 m long. To put this into context, the second longest row of single standing stones in Britain, on Butterdon Hill, only seven or eight kilometres southeast of Erme, runs for a measly 1950 m, only 150 m shorter than the longest row in Brittany. The Erme row is not only the longest row anywhere, it wipes the floor with the competition. The prehistoric builders of this row may have been using small stones, but they were most surely thinking big.
From the Stall Moor stone circle the four large stones at the northern end of Stalldown row are visible approximately 2 km away as tiny dots breaking the southern horizon formed by the ridge of Stalldown Barrow. This visual alignment is unlikely to be down to good fortune.
And so a minilithic marathon begins. The first kilometre of the row is in good condition. The evenly-spaced stones march north-south across the western slope of the valley, paying no attention to a tributary feeding into the Erme.
Any thoughts of archaeoastronomy must be thrown aside when faced with an alignment that follows the lie of the land in the way that this stone row does. Across the valley on the eastern slopes, the later Hook Lake settlements look magnificent, even if a double stone row was wrecked during the construction of the southern enclosure in antiquity.
One of the consummate Dartmoor monuments soon comes into view: Erme Pound. From afar this massive prehistoric enclosure looks as if it has only been abandoned in recent times. The stone row drops down into the lower valley bottom, and all but disappears. Crossing the River Erme at a shallow point in the water - perhaps a factor in the siting of Erme Pound - the stones of the row have either sunk in the marshy ground or were robbed in prehistory.
Making guesses as to where the stone row may actually be at this point, a three foot tall upright stone sets the row back on track. Twisting out of the valley bottom, the row suddenly reappears with an impressive stretch of small stones running sharply uphill, before giving up the ghost around Red Lake. From this point on followers of the stone row are on their own. The remainder of the row is marked only by occasional standing stones lying deep in the long grass. Finally the row comes to an end at a lonely wrecked cairn, at SX 637 678, high on Green Hill. On clear days the stone circle at the southern end of the row 3.2 km away is just visible far below the horizon. But not today.
An earlier visitor has propped the skull and lower jawbone of a fallen Dartmoor pony on a stone on Green Hill, perhaps a knowing nod to the funerary associations of stone rows. I’m not sure that the skull wants my company; the weather on Green Hill has closed in and I realise that I haven't seen a soul since setting out some eight kilometres earlier. I turn tail and head south back down the row...
The Erme Valley isn't the easiest place on Dartmoor to get out to, but the going is fairly easy and the remoteness of the area means that it is one of the most well-preserved prehistoric landscapes in Britain. There is nothing quite like the Erme Valley stone row, and every megalithomaniac should walk it at least once.
Further Reading
Aubrey Burl, A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, 1995, Yale University Press.
Aubrey Burl, From Carnac to Callanish: The prehistoric Stone Rows and Avenues of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, 1993, Yale University Press.
Jeremy Butler, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Four - The South-East, 1993, Devon Books.
R. Hansford Worth, Worth’s Dartmoor, 1967, David and Charles.
Note: Do you have photos of any of the other sites of the Erme Valley?
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| "A minilithic marathon in the Erme Valley, Southeast Dartmoor" | Login/Create an Account | 1 comment |
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Re: A minilithic marathon in the Erme Valley, Southeast Dartmoor (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Friday, 07 March 2008 | Thank you for your words on the Erme. We are walking there on 16th March, your info has provided a great framework.
Kindest Regards,
Mark | [ Reply to This ]
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