The Hingston Hill Bronze Age Stone Row and Cairn

The great menhir that stands at the western end of the stone row

This is one of my favourite places on Dartmoor: the spectacular Bronze Age remains on Hingston Hill. They must rank as one of the UK's finest prehistoric monuments.

The site is ideally approached from the east via a Bronze Age enclosure and large cairn. From there it's possible to see the stone row stretching out along the ridge of the hill where it culminates in a huge menhir and stone circle. According to archaeologist, Jeremy Butler, the site "probably looks much as it did when the stones were first erected in Bronze Age times". The exact date of construction is unknown but a date of c.1750BC, relatively early in the Bronze Age, seems most likely.

The western end of the row with stone ring beyond

 The row was restored in 1894. According to Sabine Baring-Gould, many of the stones had been overturned by men wielding crow-bars in c.1880! The large menhir at the western end of the row weighs around three tonnes. The row consists of 157 stones in total out of an original number of 174. Butler makes the point that the area is fairly free of surface stone and those used in the ring and row were probably brought from elsewhere on the moor, a laborious endeavour given the size of some of the stones.

Stone ring and cairn, looking north

The stone ring and cairn are situated at the western end of the monument. The ring is about 12m in diameter and is made up of 27 irregularly spaced stones. These surrounded a burial cairn which lay in the centre of the ring. Unfortunately the cairn has been largely robbed away leaving just a raised area and a couple of stones that might be the remains of a kistvaen that was recorded as being present on the site in the early 20th century.

Again, anyone wanting further information can do much worse than consult the account given in Vol. III of Butler's series 'Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities'. Several more cairns and kists lie in the vicinity and the entire area is well-worth exploring.

Access: via parking at Norsworthy Bridge at the eastern end of Burrator Reservoir. The stone row lies about half a kilometre east of Down Tor [the name Hingston Hill doesn't appear on the OS Explorer map].