Eight Rocks (site of) Reported Stone Circle
Database entries
OS Map: SX 645 925
OS Source: HER
HER: MDV7395
Alternate name: Eight Rocks (site of)
Short Name: SCxEight Rocks
Exist: Maybe
Record: Unique
Record Source: HER
Cairn Class: Maybe
Lidar: SX 645 925
Guide Map: 3
Nearest Bus Stop: Ramsley (1.0 km) [Route: 670,671,6A]
Nearby sites: SX 645 925
Notes
"Site of a stone circle, since destroyed, originally thought to have been located somewhere between Cosdon Hill and Ford Farm, South Tawton. Nothing remains today; the circle was apparently robbed out in the later 19th century by men from Ramsley Copper Mine, South Zeal."In Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities Vol 5. There is a section on "dubious" stone rows and included in the list is Eight Stones. The reason being that Crossing believed the Eight Rocks to be a row. (see p.215). It is perhaps useful to quote in full what Crossing says (pp.212-213):
The antiquities on the summit of Cosdon are not by any means the only ones on that hill that have suffered at the hands of the spoliator. We remember when there were many hut circles on it's eastern side, between the peat road and the enclosures opposite West Week, but only the vestiges of a few are to be found there now, and it is not so many years since that monument formerly known as Eight Rocks disappeared. This consisted of eight upright stones, forming part of what had once been a fine circle or row. From a description given to me many years ago at Whiddon Down I judge it to have been the latter. The stones stood at the northern end of the hill, on the slope above Ford. Children in the neighbourhood used to be told that when the Eight Rocks heard South Tawton bells they would be seen to dance.
R.N.Worth wrote (p.712): Ramsley: There is absolute evidence of the existence of stone rows at Ramsley, above South Zeal. They were destroyed some five-and-twenty years ago for works in connection with the Ramsley Mine, and only a few of the smaller and less important stones remain. Mr George French who was working at Ramsley at the time recollects their existence. A circle called "Eight Stones" also stood on the shoulder of the Moor above Sticklepath. The stones varied from eight feet in height to six feet; and the circle was destroyed when the surrounding part of the down was enclosed.
St Leger-Gordon records that: the Eight Stones, another fine circle which once stood upon a shoulder of Cosdon Beacon above Sticklepath, was completely removed to provide walls for a new enclosure. The copper mine on Ramsley Common, was responsible inn around 1870 for the disappearance of a third
For contenders for present day remains, see: Cosdon Hill N.3 Cist and Sticklepath Reported Stone Circle
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.
- Butler, Jeremy, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities, vol.2: The North, (1991)
- Butler, Jeremy, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities, vol.5: The Second Millennium B.C., (1997)
- Crossing, William, Guide to Dartmoor, (2001)
- Grinsell, L.V., Dartmoor Barrows, Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings No.36 (1978)
- Hemery, Eric, High Dartmoor: Land and People, (1983)
- St Leger-Gordon, Douglas, Under Dartmoor hills, (1954)
- Worth, R.N., The Stone Rows of Dartmoor - Part 5, T.D.A. Vol.28 pp.712-13 (1896)