Photo: Stennen Hill No. 1 Platform Cairn Circle and Cist
The table below lists all reported cist records in the Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks database. With large numbers of records created by different authors and observers over the years there is inevitably a big difference between records that claim to be of cists and actual cists. Some records will arise from historical claims that can no longer be reconciled with what can be seen on the ground. Then there are very many cairns that have claims made of potential cists being visible that may or may not actually be cists. There are also erroneous records from mistaken field work or just duplication of existing records. Each record below has been given a 'Cist Class' that can have the value Yes/No/Maybe. The designation is the subjective decision of the author depending on the accounts given in records. Sites will no doubt be promoted or demoted over time as better information comes to light.
The table is ordered by Alt Name. Click on the table headers to get listings ordered on that column. Clicking on the Site Name will open a site page with a large photo where one is available and the location in Google Maps in satellite mode. Clicking on OS links will list nearby sites and clicking on the NMR or HER number will open the relevant record in a new window. The last column is to the relevant record on Bill Radcliffe's Prehistoric Monuments Of Dartmoor (PMD) website which includes excellent bibliography. The column MP is for coverage on the megalithic Portal. In Vol. 5 of Butler's Atlas of Antiquities there is a table of cists which is the Butler Cist ID (BID). Rows given a light blue background indicate sites that no longer exist, those with a light salmon background are duplicate records.
There are currently 345 records below and they were identified whilst compiling over 1600 records of cairns and cists for the Prehistoric Dartmoor Map. This was the bringing together of all the records from Grinsell, Turner, Butler and those in the NMR and HER listings. All records were given a Reported Cist value of True or False. The reported cists were then matched up where possible with Bill Radcliffe's superb and very detailed listings of cists. A few additional records were identified from PMD and added. The listing below is new but it also builds on previous work done by Bill Radcliffe for which this author is very grateful. The following link is to the listing of only those records given a Cist Class of Yes, the table below includes also those with Cist Class of Maybe and No.
Contact email: info@dartmoorwalks.org.uk
Page last updated 09/02/18