Buttern Hill Stone Circle, Buttern Hill, Dartmoor, Devon
Visited Sunday, 14th March 2010.
SX 64951 88484, Altitude 390m, Access 2, Ambience 4, Condition 2
On the top of Buttern Hill there are the remains of many old reaves and ancient settlement items, particularly all over the fairly flat top of the hill. There are several stones which look like standers, one or two of which I investigated, but I came to the conclusion that they were probably simply the remains of the ancient reaves or settlement structures.
I continued down the western side of the hill, towards the saddle between Buttern Hill and its western neighbour, aiming towards the narrowest part where the watershed divides from running south towards the Teign, or northwards into Whitemoor Marsh. Finding the stone circle was not easy, as there was nothing obvious at all to see from the hillside.
The circle lies in the saddle of the land, just on the western slopes of Buttern Hill, almost right at the watershed between north and south of this little valley. The circle was quite difficult to find, as nearly all of the stones are flat and fallen amongst the long grass. I counted only 16 stones of the circle, although there are supposedly 23 to be found. Many of the stones I did find were completely buried underneath the growth, and were only identified by poking my stick at them.
Most of the stones are about three feet long and flat to the ground, although there is one little section at the upper part of the circle where there are three consecutive standers, each not much more than a foot tall. One or two of the other stones still make a little effort at standing, but that is all. There are signs that some of the stones have in the past been broken by stonecutters, so perhaps most of the stones were once much larger. I paced out a diameter of about 25 metres.
I walked around the circumference of the circle a couple of times, in order to take pictures, and make a good trail on my gps track plot. Getting decent pictures was a difficult task, due to the long grass and small, fallen stones. I sat and ate pasty lunch on one of the larger stones, underneath which was hidden a letterbox, containing a plastic donkey, a beanbag animal, and other junk. It had a little diary notebook which I signed and commented in, but no stamp.
On the way down to the circle, while looking for signs of it, I had seen a couple of slightly erect stones a bit further to the north, on the far side of the valley. Were these the possible remains of Buttern Hill (W) circle? So I went for a look.
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