Blackpool (Mardon) Ancient Pool

Database entries

PDW coverage: Dartmoor Site: Mardon Down Stone Circle & Cairns
OS Map: SX 76757 87350
OS Source: Garmin
HER: MDV19004
Alternate name: Blackpool (Mardon)
Short Name: PO Blackpool
Exist: Yes
Record: Unique
Record Source: HER
Cairn Class: Maybe
Dimensions (m): 25 x 20m
Lidar: SX 76757 87350
Nearby sites: SX 76757 87350

Notes

"Marked as an enclosure on historic mapping, this is actually a seasonal pond. Surveyed in 2017, its outline shape is unevenly rounded on the western end. Its appearance, with small scarped edges, suggest it was hand dug and large boulders around the edge have been left in situ. The hollow measures 22 metres by 17 metres but is only 0.5 metres deep. An alignment of small stones in the base of the hollow may be a more recent addition. There is no indication as to where material removed from the hollow was dumped. Cannot be confirmed for certain as a dewpond and no evidence was found for this ever having been the site of a ring cairn, as previously suggested. Recorded as Black Pool in 1912. Included in Greeves' list (2019) of 'sacred pools', with potentially prehistoric origins."

References

These are selected references with an emphasis on out of copyright sources linked as PDFs. For more detailed references try any linked HER or PMD record above.

• Greeves, T, Dartmoor's Sacred Pools - Design in the Prehistoric Landscape, Dartmoor Magazine 137 (2019)
• Newman, Phil, A Stone Circle and Cairn Group on Mardon Down, Moretonhampstead, Devon An Earthwork Survey, Southwest Landscape Investigations (2017)