A Bronze Age ritual landscape on Dartmoor
Dartmoor, with its rocky tors and bogs, appears to be a ‘natural’ landscape but it has a wealth of archaeological evidence of prehistoric use by humans. In particular, there are several Bronze Age ritual monuments.
Scorhill stone circle is situated on Scorhill Down in the open moorland landscape of north east Dartmoor. It lies on a level, interfluvial area that would have been cleared and used for grazing, and nearby the remains of a length of ‘reave’, a stone-built boundary wall, are evidence of Bronze Age land division.
The circle consists of 34 stones, and is one of a collection of ritual monuments of similar age. It lies next to two cairns, and just one kilometre away on Shovel Down are several stone rows (photo 2) plus a number of standing stones, the largest of which, the Long Stone (photo 3), stands over 3m in height.
Further information
Bronze Age to Roman (Dartmoor National Park)
Andrew Fleming (1984) The prehistoric landscape of Dartmoor: wider implications, Landscape History, 6:1, 5-19 View at Taylor & Francis
