Black
Tor Row
Bronze Age Stone Row
Walkhampton Common, Dartmoor, Devon OS
Map Ref SX57157149
OS Maps - Landranger 191 (Okehampton & North Dartmoor), Explorer OL28 (Dartmoor)
The southern line of stones of Black Tor row looking northeast, many of the stones of the northern row are thought to be buried within the later fieldwall. The rocky outcrop on the horizon is Black Tor. |
Standing above
the valley of the River Meavy this double row of stones roughly follow
the contours of the hillside at about 40 metres above sea level and
runs in a northeast to southwest direction with the rocky outcrop of
Black Tor with its rocking or 'Logan Stones' dominating the view to
the north.
The row is not aligned on this outcrop though, if extended the axis of the row would pass some distance to the east of the summit of Black Tor and it seem more likely that the primary purpose of the avenue of stones was to lead to a small group of three cairns that stand close to its south-western terminal. The row itself is partly overlain with a more recent fieldwall or boundary that follows the course of the row and many stones must lie undiscovered within this later construction although about twenty stones can be seen poking out from beneath the rubble and earth. On the southeast side of the boundary the other half of the row is more clearly visible with about sixty stones running for a distance of over 280 metres. These stones stand to heights of between 50 - 80cm and as such are quite a bit larger than those contained within the nearby rows at Hart Tor, the whole alignment appearing much more imposing and substantial that its more delicate neighbour 500 metres away to the northeast. Date: Bronze Age |
Looking east towards the valley of the River Meavy with Hart Tor in the background. |