<< Our Photo Pages >> Mardon Down Cairn 1 - Cairn in England in Devon
Submitted by AngieLake on Saturday, 22 November 2008 Page Views: 3863
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Mardon Down Cairn 1 Alternative Name: Grinsell Moretonhampstead 5; Turner E9Country: England County: Devon Type: Cairn
Nearest Town: Moretonhampstead
Map Ref: SX76768716
Latitude: 50.671022N Longitude: 3.745377W
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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External Links:
I have visited· I would like to visit
TheCaptain visited on 26th Feb 2019 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 3 Just south of the circle is what at first looks like a pile of large stones, but upon investigation is the remains of a cairn with much of the remains of a circle of surrounding stones, and with four large blocks at its southern side, and a large slab just on the outside, probably once the capstone to an internal cist. This is a nice monument. I continue on southwards to get a look at the wonderful views from the edge of the hill all the way round from the east through the deep valleys to the south and out to the west with the heights of the main bulk of Dartmoor. There are a lot of fires out there today, I suspect from burning off of the gorse and bracken.
AngieLake have visited here
Butler tells us in his Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities, Vol 5.:
"The gorse and bracken covered ridge reaching to the 350 m contour remains unimproved above the surrounding fields, permitting the survival of both the stone circle and an interesting alignment of burial cairns."
.....
"The ridge top was also selected as the site for the customary variety of cairn types arranged in an alignment, a typical setting apparently ignoring the presence of the stone circle, though elsewhere cairns are often grouped haphazardly around them as if the circles were still a focus of some significance. Polwhele (1797) may have been referring to one of these cairns 'opened a few years since' in which were found 'ashes, burnt wood and pieces of earthen vessels.'
A few metres south of the circle a rifled cairn is surrounded by a ring of stones , 1 [ref to his map.. see sketched copy on site page of Mardon Down S], (6.0 m); four large blocks arc around the south side and rather smaller, evenly spaced slabs, almost buried by the upcast from the central pit, encompass the rest of the perimeter, probably the full complement of the retaining circle. The large flat slab resting on the mound outside the ring is very likely a displaced cist cover. Judging by the amount of material thrown out on the north-east side from the central hollow it must once have been a prominent dome-shaped monument."
Update November 2019: This site is featured on the Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks (PDW) website - see their entries for the Mardon Down Platform Cairn Circle and the Mardon Down Stone Circle & Cairns.
The cairn is also recorded as part of Pastscape Monument No 445394 and as MDV15158 on the Devon and Dartmoor HER.
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30m N 358° Mardon Down S* Stone Circle (SX76768719)
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