Rippon Tor [Grinsell Ilsington 1; Rippon Tor 1; Turner A62] Cairn : The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map:

<< Our Photo Pages >> Rippon Tor - Cairn in England in Devon

Submitted by AngieLake on Friday, 19 October 2007 Page Views: 10220

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Rippon Tor Alternative Name: Grinsell Ilsington 1; Rippon Tor 1; Turner A62
Country: England County: Devon Type: Cairn
Nearest Town: Ashburton Nearest Village: Widecombe in the Moor
Map Ref: SX74667558
Latitude: 50.566486N Longitude: 3.771164W
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

3 Ambience:

5	Superb
4	Good
3	Ordinary
2	Not Good
1	Awful
0	No data.

5 Access:

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.

3 Accuracy:

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

4

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TheCaptain visited on 9th Dec 2022 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 3 The forecast is for a cold icy but bright sunny day as we pack up and leave Splash Cottage, so I decide for a walk up to Rippon Tor and around before the journey home. Unfortunately the real weather up there means I am in the clouds and fog. I make the effort to climb the tor, but its freezing fog up there, and can't see more than about 25 metres, so have a quick wander to the hilltop cairns, cross and millstone, then back down to the car via an old boundary cross at the edge of the frozen Blackslade Mire.

AngieLake have visited here

Rippon Tor is well worth the climb from the nearby Bovey Tracey to Widecombe-in-the-Moor road at Hemsworthy Gate. From the summit (473m) there are wide-ranging views, including the estuary of the River Teign to the approx ESE. It is higher than popular nearby Haytor (457m) to its NE, and Buckland Beacon (380m) to its SW. These three 'peaks' form a magical and inviting horizon when viewed from the Newton Abbot area, or from Kingsteignton as you travel inland from the sea at Teignmouth.

On the summit of Rippon Tor are several cairns.
Butler (in Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities, Vol.1, The East) says:
"The slight exertion of the climb to the summit of Rippon Tor is not only repaid by the exhilarating view but by the exceptional number of interesting objects to be found here."

He begins by talking about the two parallel reaves (about 65m apart) that traverse the summit (approx. NW-SE according to his plan) with two cross-banks between them which enclose 4 or 5 cairns, as well as the tor itself.
"The highest rock on the summit is crowned by a massive cairn, C1, one of the largest on Dartmoor, 28m in diameter by 4m high, including the unknown height of the natural rock below. This prominent position has earned it an O.S. Trig. station at the centre."
(I climbed to the top of the cairn and saw the concrete post nestling in amongst its pile of rocks. I omitted to photograph it, but have it on film.)

"Two more large cairns C4 and C5, about 20m in diameter, lie close together in a line to the south-east. Both have been much damaged, pitted with miniature craters where stones have been displaced, but still remain impressive monuments. The dearth of surface stone on the hilltop in contrast to the western slope may be due to the considerable amount collected to build these enormous piles."

"Cairn C3 is small (6.8 x 0.4m high), almost midway between C1 and C4. Composed of small stones except for a large slab lying at the edge, this is probably the site of the cist referred to by Crossing as almost covered by turf, though he makes no mention of the cairn."
(I thought this looked more recently man-made, to be honest, and didn't even investigate it.)

"C2 is a small natural rock pillar about 2m high and 10m from the edge of C1, surrounded at the base by a ring of small stones (7.2 x 0.5m) and, perhaps significantly, in line with the cairns."
(I didn't notice these stones!)

Butler goes on to describe the remains of a large settlement here on both eastern and southern flanks of the tor, and also draws our attention to two partly-worked millstones near the summit.
Just to the W of the summit cairn (C1) is "a partly cut latin cross, lying on the turf 20m to the west of the cairn. The left arm has been roughed out and the shaft and head cut to some depth. The right arm, however, is just a stub and perhaps a fracture here was the reason why the work was discontinued."
(I missed that one too!)

NB: As far as I know, Butler alloted those letters and numbers to the cairns to enable the reader to ref. their positions in his plan.

Update November 2019: The Rippon Tor 1 cairn at SX 74664 75581, also referenced as Turner A62, Grinsell Ilsington 1, and shown on Butler map 5.5.1, is featured on the Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks (PDW) website - see their entry for the Rippon Tor Stone Ring Cairn Circle.

This cairn is also recorded as part of Pastscape Monument No. 445156, as MDV7539 (Cairn on summit of Rippon Tor), and scheduled as part of Historic England List ID 1019603 (Coaxial fields, prehistoric settlements and cairns on Halshanger and Horridge Commons, forming part of the Rippon Tor coaxial field system).

Pastscape gives the grid references of the cairns as: 'A'-SX 74717549; 'B'-SX 74747547; 'C'-SX 74687552; and 'D'-SX 74657557
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