Merrivale row 4

Trip No.133  Entry No.8  Date Added: 17th Jul 2019
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 14th May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Merrivale 4 stone row: Without Sandy G and Dave P’s guidance on this, I would probably have looked at these stones and not thought much about them, but in association with the other two short rows (5 and 6), the tall, impressive menhirs and the fallen stone and cairn nearby, it was a jumble to unpick, so I was very grateful for the explanations!

Merrivale 5

Trip No.133  Entry No.9  Date Added: 17th Jul 2019
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 14th May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Merrivale 5 stone row: I was getting really 'dazed and confused' about the different stone rows here and what I was photographing, so I asked Sandy, Dave and Andrew to each place a foot on or near each stone of this row!

Merrivale Menhir

Trip No.133  Entry No.11  Date Added: 17th Jul 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 14th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Merrivale Menhir: This tall stone made up for the small size of the stones of the stone circle, and I enjoyed visiting here. My goodness, with the three stone rows, the fallen menhirs, the cairn and the pits, it was certainly interesting here. I'd taken my notes for this site with me, but the wind was so strong I was unable to get them out and read them! Now having the Butler series of "Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities" has made it much easier to understand the layout and complexities of the site, as far as I'm able.

Merrivale 6

Trip No.133  Entry No.10  Date Added: 17th Jul 2019
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 14th May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Merrivale 6 stone row: Only one stone was visible of this row, and thankfully we had Sandy G to point out the location of the row and the only stone of this very short row visible - the western most stone. So many features around the Merrivale Menhir. I'm really glad we had our guide for the day, and also, at home, the Butler "Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities" (volume 3) to help interpret all the different stones, cairns and pits.

Merrivale Second Menhir and Cairn

Trip No.133  Entry No.12  Date Added: 17th Jul 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 14th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Merrivale Second Menhir, pit and cairn: All these monuments were so close together, it was a bit mind-boggling. I made sure I wrote down the monuments and the photo numbers so I didn't mix them up when I processed the photos later (the wind was still gusting strongly so we didn't get my folder with pre-printed notes out in case they blew away).

As a group, we were fascinating with all the pits around here and spent some time exploring them and taking grid references. Dave P later contacted me to tell me these had been documented by Butler in his Volume 3 of "Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities".

Black Tor (Meavy)

Trip No.133  Entry No.14  Date Added: 17th Jul 2019
Site Type: Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 14th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Stanlake Stone Row (aka Black Tor): Our second stop of the afternoon, and our hope was that as we crossed the road and descended from the slopes that we'd be more sheltered from the wind. Not a chance! However, this did not spoil my enjoyment of the next few sites.

From the Leeden Tor stone row, we crossed the main road, ending up in what -after a spell of wet weather - would have been a boggy dip, but at the time of our visit was relatively dry. Even so trying to find a way across that I, and my wonky knees could manage, was a little amusing. Angie stopped to have her photographs taken against the Tors and woodland behind.

This double stone row is partly hidden by a dry stone wall/earthen bank, put up when the landowner enclosed his land, telling his workers to ‘enclose up to and including the stone row’ according to Sandy.

We had intended to come back and photograph this stone row on the way back, but because I couldn’t make it to the sites we'd planned to go to later in the afternoon because of the steep drops by the leat, we didn’t return this way.

Black Tor Stone Row Cairns (Stanlake)

Trip No.133  Entry No.15  Date Added: 17th Jul 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 14th May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Black Tor, cairns at south-western end of the stone row: These cairns lie just to the south western end of the stone row, to the south of the field boundary containing the northern side of the stone row and just to the west of another field boundary which runs NNW-SSE. Whilst I vaguely recognised these as cairns, without Dave Parks and his magic GPS, and Sandy G coming to give us an explanation, I might have dismissed these as being relatively unimportant. Wrong!

These cairns are recorded on Sandy’s Site Report 4 for the stone row (diagram 6, page 12) but again it was too windy to get these out and study them in any detail. I would really have loved to have spent more time here on a lovely, bright sunny day.
These run just to the west of another field boundary which runs NNW to SSE and just south of the field boundary containing the stone row.

Stanlake Settlement

Trip No.133  Entry No.16  Date Added: 17th Jul 2019
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 14th May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Stanlake Prehistoric Settlement: Walking down slope from the western end of the stone row, we soon came upon a very interesting, complex and intriguing mix of hut circles, dry stone walls and other features. I lagged behind the group a little, trying to determine what I was seeing as I saw it, but failed miserably - there was so much to take in!

Sandy waited for his Intrepid Dartmoor Expedition Group around the spot marked 6 on his plan (taken from his survey report for Meavy Valley Archaeology: site report 1, figure 3, which I've added as a link to Angie's main site page text.

It is interesting that in his report, Sandy links this settlement to the nearby production of tin, with a large tin works just to the south of the Devonport leat.

Having studied point 6 for some time, we wandered over the hut circles and attached compounds, walking to the south and west, and back round to the long house, of which very little now remains, but there are low banks in the ground, partly cut by a modern field wall.

I was sad to leave, as I could have spent at least another couple of hours here. Yet it was to be my last site of the day, as further to the NW along the Devonport Leat, there was a section of steep drops down into the river and the l eat, and I was unable to proceed any further. As it happened, it was a good job we stopped earlier (it was gone 4pm by this time), as Andy B has caught an earlier train and was waiting in Newton Abbott.

Leeden Tor

Trip No.133  Entry No.13  Date Added: 9th Jul 2019
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 14th May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Leeden Tor Stone Row: It was now the afternoon of 14th May. Having driven from Merrivale to the small car park nearest this site at SX 56725 71397, we had 10-15 minutes to spare before everyone arrived. In the meantime, Sandy led us up the hill to look at this stone row. By this time the wind was howling around us, with strong gusts that threatened to blow me over - thank goodness for my walking poles! I took a little satisfaction in watching the small group of soldiers out on exercise also being pummelled by the wind.

When the stones in the row and the cairn at its head were pointed out to me, I could see the alignment and also its relationship to the reave.

Whilst this stone row is near the car park, the tussocky grass made walking a little tricky.

Merrivale circle

Trip No.133  Entry No.7  Date Added: 7th Jul 2019
Site Type: Stone Circle Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 14th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Merrivale Stone Circle: Will you forgive me for saying I wasn't hugely impressed by this stone circle. For some reason I was expecting the stones to be larger and for it to sit more dramatically in the landscape.

On walking to the circle from the western end of Row 2, we came across an impressively large, black coloured boulder buried in the grass, which does not appear to be marked by Butler. I estimated its grid reference to be SX 55304 74704, or just south of this.

The group walked round the circle and the menhir, looking at the pits in the ground, wondering if these could possibly be the remains of holes for other stones. Dave Parks said he had read somewhere that there was thought to have been a double stone circle here, but no proof had yet been found. He later came back to tell me that Butler has marked the pits on his diagrams of Merrivale, see pages 29-31 inclusive of Volume 3 of "Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities".

I do like Butler's description of the circle: "Their arrangement is markedly eccentric, perhaps deliberately so, with the majority of stones up to a metre off a true circle 19m across and with very variable intervals between" and his notes that the numbers of stones seem to vary across the ages: "several detailed nineteenth century accounts of the site show that the number of stones has actually increased, a most unusual phenomenon, from 9 in the early part of the century, 9 in 1828 (Smith), 10 (1827, Rowe, 1829 Kempe), and 9 (1859 Wilkinson), before reaching the present total of 11 in Worth’s 1895 plan. It seems at least 2 stones have been added, probably by some of the early investigators who were not always particular in recording their restorations, which in any case were often somewhat arbitrary".

Merrivale Centre S

Trip No.133  Entry No.6  Date Added: 7th Jul 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 14th May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Merrivale Centre S Cairn (cairn at the head of Merrivale 3/C stone row): Thank heavens for Sandy G's Stone Rows of Great Britain and Dave P's Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks websites to help sort out the photos for Merrivale 3and its cairn. This area certainly has a glut of stone rows and cairns, and the GPS device on my camera had failed. Whilst I carefully wrote down the numbers of the photographs and the sites they related to, and constantly asked Sandy G on the day which site I was looking at, there's nothing like being able to make a direct comparison almost two months later. Thanks, guys!

As the cairn has a separate site page, but I've recorded them both together, as per the Pastscape record (440357), I've given these two the same visit number.

Merrivale SW row 3

Trip No.133  Entry No.6  Date Added: 7th Jul 2019
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 14th May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Merrivale Row 3/C: Without Sandy G being there to tell us, I would have struggled to identify this as a stone row in its own right, but with Sandy pointing out where it joining up at an angle with Merrivale 2/B and with the cairn at its head, it became more obvious. The cairn is recorded as a separate site page here, so I'm adding the same visit report number, as I've recorded them both together, as the Pastscape record (440357).

Merrivale Cists

Trip No.133  Entry No.5  Date Added: 6th Jul 2019
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 14th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Merrivale Cist: I've seen quite a few cists, largely in Northumberland, and none this large. Impressive. I tried to persuade Janet to get into the cist to model it, but she politely declined (it would have made a nice refuge for the wind).

At this point, Angie got her dowsing rods out and was meandering around the cist and the stones. Very interesting to watch.

Merrivale Centre Row

Trip No.133  Entry No.4  Date Added: 5th Jul 2019
Site Type: Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 14th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Merrivale 2/Merrivale Centre Row: As we progressed further south over the moorland, and not far from Merrivale 1 (the northern-most row) at that, the stone rows kept getting better and better.

The row features a triangular blocking stone at the eastern end and twin blocking stones at the western end. It runs for 262.5m from SX 5530 7475 to SX 5556 7478 - see Pastscape 44056. The stones seem to vary in size quite a lot, and generally larger than those of the northern row/row 1/row A.

Merrivale Centre N

Trip No.133  Entry No.3  Date Added: 4th Jul 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 14th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Merrivale Centre Cairn with Cist: Half way down Merrivale North (Row A or Row 1), we hopped across to row 2 to take a look at the cairn in the middle of the row. Fascinating. Worried about the complexity of recording all these sites in my photo/walk journal, Angie Lake told me about the Butler "Atlas of Antiquities" series of 5 books, which has hugely increased my understanding of these sites. Thanks, Angie!

Merrivale North Row

Trip No.133  Entry No.2  Date Added: 3rd Jul 2019
Site Type: Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 14th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Merrivale North Row (Merrivale 1): Between the prehistoric settlement and the first of our stone rows for the day, Sandy G had stopped to point out some of the stones of the Great Western Reave.

Continuing on, these stones could be seen from down slope at the Prehistoric Settlement, and proved a tantalising glimpse of what was in store for the rest of the morning. Sandy was amazing at explaining all the different features along the row, including part of which had recently been restored.

But my goodness, the wind was blowing, and blowing hard. At some points, it was a little tricky to stand upright – thank heavens for my walking poles!

Merrivale settlement

Trip No.133  Entry No.1  Date Added: 22nd Jun 2019
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 14th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Merrivale Prehistoric Settlement: This was our first stop of the day as part of a three day guided tour by Sandy G, who certainly knew his way around this site, and all the others in this Bronze Age complex.

We parked in the small car park at SX 55311 75018 and, having introduced ourselves to the rest of Sandy's small Expeditionary Force, we walked the short distance onto the moor to start at this site. With the nearer stone rows within site just at the top of the hill, expectations for an exciting rest of the day rose rapidly.

The only downside was the absolutely howling wind that blew throughout the day, sometimes makingit difficult to stand upright. However, it was a cheap way of exfoliating!

I found out when copying photos from the memory card of my camera to my computer that the external GPS device on my camera had stopped working, so I was unable to identify the precise locations of the hut circles I photographed.