The Merrivale Antiquities

The Bronze Age ceremonial centre at Merrivale remains one of Dartmoor's more well-known prehistoric sites, partly perhaps because of its proximity to the main road between Tavistock and Postbridge and partly because of the variety of its relatively well-preserved antiquities.

The great menhir at Merrivale, still standing after around 3500 years

The extensive site consists of at least four stone rows, two of which are double rows, over 17 burial cairns and/or kistvaens, the remains of at least one stone circle, a standing stone or menhir over 3m in height and several hut circles that are the remnants of Bronze Age roundhouses.

According to Crossing, the area containing the antiquities was formerly known colloquially as the Potato Market or the Plague Market. He relates a tradition claming that it was here that moorfolk left provisions for collection by the citizens of Tavistock "when the plague ravaged that town".

The stone circle at Merrivale

As ever with prehistoric artifacts, the Merrivale antiquities remain an enigma and will probably always do so. It seems likely that they were constructed over a prolonged period of time, possibly between c.2000BC, the end of the Neolithic, and the end of the Bronze Age c.800BC. Which came first? The menhir? The stone rows? The cairns? The settlement itself? Clearly the site was of great significance to the local population but what was the connection, if any, between the rows, the circles and cairns and the standing stone? What did it mean to the people and what rituals were performed here.

Crossing makes a good point when he remarks on the lowly nature of the stones used in the stone rows both at Merrivale in particular and on Dartmoor generally. The ground is often littered with huge blocks of granite so why use such meagre examples? Clearly a small number of people could've constructed the stone rows at Merrivale in a fairly small space of time. Size didn't seem to matter whatsoever, unless they didn't have the communal forces at hand to construct with larger blocks. The menhir is another matter and must've taken significant effort to erect. Perhaps it pre-dated the stone rows by centuries when a different workforce was available. But then the extraordinary stone row and circle at Hingston Hill a few miles to the south also uses smallish stones for much of its length only to terminate with a colossal menhir.

The Merrivale stone circle is made up of 11 stones, all fairly small in height, and lies close to the menhir. Excavation in the 19th century found some evidence for the theory that a second circle once surrounded the existing one and used much larger stones, although little now survives above ground of this second circle.

One of the double stone rows at Merrivale

Of the four stone rows, only the two double ones are immediately apparent. The most northerly of the two is also the shorter running for 183m roughly east to west. The more southerly row is 80m longer. The southerly row is interrupted about halfway along by a burial cairn that separates the row into two almost equal halves. The remains of a kistvaen lie at its centre. It seems likely that the western half of the stone row was completed first when it terminated with the burial cairn. For some unknown reason, the stone row was then extended towards the east leaving the current unique arrangement. I wonder if the individual stones leading to the burial cairn represented community ancestors. From a distance the stones often look like people standing motionless on the moor.

The largest kistvaen at Merrivale and one of the largest still surviving on the moor

 The largest of the kistvaens at Merrivale is around 2.2m long although there is very little left of the cairn which used to cover it. Much of this seems to have been robbed away by 1802 when the site was visited by the Reverend Bray. The great granite capping stone was split apart in 1870 to provide a local innkeeper with two gateposts and a third post was removed from one of the slabs comprising the kistvaen's walls. The two halves of the capping stone were placed back over the cavity by the Dartmoor Exploration Committee in 1895 during which two flints and what the restorers believed to be a polishing stone were found.

The archaeology at the site is very complex and anyone wanting further information should refer to Jeremy Butler's account in Vol. III of his series, 'Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities'.

Access: very easy via car parking both at Merrivale and the nearby Four Winds car park. The ground can sometimes be a little boggy after wet weather but it's usually not an issue. The site is well worth a visit even if the remains at Drizzlecombe and Hingston Hill are more immediately impressive. And still we're left with the question: What did it mean for those who built it?

Source: 'Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities, Vol III - The South-West', Jeremy Butler, 1994