<< Our Photo Pages >> Corndon Down Cairns - Barrow Cemetery in England in Devon
Submitted by AngieLake on Thursday, 07 May 2009 Page Views: 8927
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Corndon Down Cairns Alternative Name: Corndon Tor CairnsCountry: England County: Devon Type: Barrow Cemetery
Nearest Town: Ashburton Nearest Village: Widecombe in the Moor
Map Ref: SX68557420
Latitude: 50.552739N Longitude: 3.856903W
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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SolarMegalith would like to visit
TheCaptain visited on 3rd Dec 2022 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 3 Walk from Ponsworthy up and over Corndon Hill, taking in the money pit, Sharp Tor and Dr Blackall's ride, stopping for lunch at the Tavistock Inn. At the top of the main, southern summit, is a granite tor surrounded by masses of cairn material. About 50 metres to the north is another large cairn, which also encompasses a granite outcrop. Both are about 25 metres diameter. To the west of the tor top cairn are several edge set slabs in a line, which may have once formed part of a stone row up here. Butler states that it is possible that these are the remains of a double stone row. Crossing recorded an unfound treble stone row somewhere in the region, with a double stone row not far off. As for the northern summit, we weren't hanging around this grey cold windy day, so I didn't spend any time having a proper look.
AngieLake have visited here
For convenience, I've drawn a plan, based on one in Butler's book (see below), but given each cairn, except for Corndon Tor cairn, a letter.. A, B, and C.
The site is easily accessible with some careful parking nearby, just off the main Dartmeet to Poundsgate road (see plan). A WWI memorial cross is a good signpost for the footpath, which is reasonably easy to the summit. The actual tor is a pile of larger rocks over to the east of the summit, but you won't need to go there. Just head for the smaller outcrop at the highest point.
Jeremy Butler in his Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities, has this to say:
"A miniature tor crowns the highest point of Corndon Down, the rocks partly hidden by what must have been a huge cairn of small stones around its base. These have been displaced in all directions, but it is unlikely that there were ever enough to cover the rocks entirely. A reave, originating on the far side of Vag Hill nearly 2 km away, runs up to its base and continues on the north side towards the West Webburn. A second large cairn (20 x 3m high) shares the hilltop about 50m to the north." ..........
"North of the tor the ground dips before rising again to a second but lower summit, the setting for another pair of large cairns. A well-marked reave crosses the summit between the two without deviating the metre or two necessary to include the eastern cairn (21 x 2.5 m high) in the alignment, though loose stones from this now partly cover the reave. Similarly, a cross-bank deliberately avoids contact with the edge of the western cairn (25 m across) although the curved cross-bank further west seems to have been orientated towards it.
The despoilation of ancient monuments is almost as old as the monuments themselves and has continued to the present day. Back in the 1820s a team of about fifty holiday-makers from Bovey Tracey" ...[nr. Newton Abbot]... "joined forces with 'many rustics from the neighbourhood' to explore these cairns and were disappointed to be rewarded only with 'an old jar or two', presumably grave-goods which accompanied an internment.
A small isolated hut (3.5 m) within a tiny enclosure lies in the hollow between the summits, built on to a reave running along the ridge. The walls still stand well above ground level, with an outer concentric bank around the western edge in a similar fashion to that around hut 2 in the Sherwell settlement below. A levelled area against the south wall of the enclosure suggests there may have been a second building here."
I also photographed a large flat slab of natural stone, below and to the north of the large cairn 'A', which slopes towards the northerly cairns and overlooks the dip between the summits. It had a view to the rounded summits of Honeybag and Chinkwell Tors to the NE, too, and I couldn't help wondering if this slab, in such a perfect position, might have been used in any ancient ceremonies, so will include a couple of shots for you to decide.
I'd worked out the probable OS grid refs for all 4 cairns:
Corndon Tor = SX68557420
Cairn A = SX68557430
Cairn B = SX68557475
Cairn C = SX68657478
It's probably easier to have them together on one page here.
Update September 2019: Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks includes an entry for the cairn at SX 68588 74227 - see their page for the Corndon Tor Cairn, also known as Corndon Tor 1, which tells us this is "to the north of the main outcrop, comprising a large stony mound, from moorstone with a truncated cone profile and no turf cover. Remains of a possible second cairn are located to the south on the outcrop".
The cairn is also recorded as Pastscape Monument No. 442874, and the Devon and Dartmoor HER: MDV6387 (Large cairn on Corndon Tor).
This cairn is also scheduled as Historic England List ID 1003289 (Cairn on Corndon Tor).
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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
488m SW 228° Yar Tor SE* Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX68187388)
498m SW 226° Money Pit cairn* Stone Circle (SX6818173865)
507m WSW 251° Yar Tor NW* Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX6806674043)
531m N 2° Corndon Down N Cairns* Barrow Cemetery (SX68587473)
545m SW 227° Money Pit Cairns* Cairn (SX68147384)
698m S 183° Ouldsbroom Cross* Ancient Cross (SX6850173504)
728m WSW 255° Yar Tor Enclosure* Causewayed Enclosure (SX67847403)
735m WSW 248° Yar Tor Summit* Cairn (SX67867394)
814m SSE 168° Sherril Down Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX687734)
1.1km SSE 150° Sherberton Common Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX691732)
1.2km SW 229° Yar Tor Prehistoric Homestead* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX67627342)
1.3km NW 318° Sherwell Long Barrow* Long Barrow (SX677752)
2.6km S 189° Holne Moor North Ring Cairn (SX68097162)
2.6km SSW 195° Aller Brook* Cist (SX67807168)
2.7km W 260° Huccaby Rings Inner* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX6585473819)
2.8km SSW 210° Combestone Tor* Rock Outcrop (SX671718)
3.0km W 273° Huccaby Rings Outer* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX6554474428)
3.3km SSW 198° Holne Moor* Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX6743171042)
3.4km WNW 288° Laughter Tor row 1* Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX65377532)
3.4km SSW 206° Holne Ridge 5* Cairn (SX66967120)
3.5km SSW 206° Holne Ridge 6* Cairn (SX66927111)
3.5km ENE 61° Dunstone Cup Stone Rock Art (SX71677585)
3.5km WNW 288° Laughter Tor Longstone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (SX65227538)
3.5km SSW 205° Horn's Cross* Ancient Cross (SX66987103)
3.5km WNW 288° Laughter Tor row 2* Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX65207538)
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