Ancient Monuments

History on the Ground

This site is entirely user-supported. See how you can help.

Cairn west of Legis Lake

A Scheduled Monument in Meavy, Devon

We don't have any photos of this monument yet. Why don't you be the first to send us one?

Upload Photo »

Approximate Location Map
Large Map »

If Google Street View is available, the image is from the best available vantage point looking, if possible, towards the location of the monument. Where it is not available, the satellite view is shown instead.

Coordinates

Latitude: 50.4718 / 50°28'18"N

Longitude: -4.0227 / 4°1'21"W

OS Eastings: 256561.901

OS Northings: 65503.58967

OS Grid: SX565655

Mapcode National: GBR Q1.TQK7

Mapcode Global: FRA 27GT.2NM

Entry Name: Cairn west of Legis Lake

Scheduled Date: 29 October 1991

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1012421

English Heritage Legacy ID: 10588

County: Devon

Civil Parish: Meavy

Traditional County: Devon

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Devon

Details

Many examples of prehistoric funerary monuments are preserved on Dartmoor,
mostly dating to the Bronze Age (c.2500-500 BC). To celebrate or commemorate
the dead, mounds of earth or stone were piled in roughly hemispherical shape
over the burial, which was sometimes contained in a small rectangular
structure, or cist, made of stone slabs. Some monuments also include
kerbstones marking the outer edge of the mound and surrounding ditch.
This cairn lies to the west of Legis Lake, just north of the boundary with
enclosed land to the south. It is a grass-covered mound 8m in diameter and
0.3m in height, with five stones of a retaining kerb around it. It lies
within 100m of a stone circle and within a few hundred metres of a stone row
and other cairns.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Dartmoor is the largest expanse of open moorland in Southern Britain and
because of exceptional conditions of preservation, it is also one of the
most complete examples of an upland relict landscape in the whole country.
The great wealth and diversity of archaeological remains provides direct
evidence for human exploitation of the Moor from the early prehistoric
period onwards. The well-preserved and often visible relationship between
settlement sites, major land boundaries, trackways, ceremonial and funerary
monuments as well as later industrial remains, gives significant insights
into successive changes in the pattern of land use through time.
This is a well-preserved example of a cairn on the brow of the valley slope,
its relationship to other monuments indicates the wealth of evidence
relating to the ritual side of life on this part of the Moor.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, 'Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings' in Dartmoor Barrows, , Vol. 36, (1978), 167
Other
Devon SMR, REF SX56NE-065,

Source: Historic England

Other nearby scheduled monuments

AncientMonuments.uk is an independent online resource and is not associated with any government department. All government data published here is used under licence. Please do not contact AncientMonuments.uk for any queries related to any individual ancient or schedued monument, planning permission related to scheduled monuments or the scheduling process itself.

AncientMonuments.uk is a Good Stuff website.