Thornworthy Reported Stone Circle

Database entries

OS Map: SX 65930 85035
OS Source: Garmin
Alternate name: Thornworthy
Short Name: SC Thornworthy
Exist: Yes
Record: Unique
Record Source: Goodwin
Hut Class: No
Lidar: SX 65930 85035
Guide Map: 13
Nearest Bus Stop: Warren House Inn (5.6 km) [Route: 171]
Nearby sites: SX 65930 85035

Notes

Possible stone circle at Thornworthy reported by Sam Goodwin on a Facebook posting. Facebook: Possible Stone Circle at Thornworthy?. The HER entry MDV6666 perhaps relates to this feature, a discounted reported stone row.

Sam had been looking at the "sacred Crescent" of stone circles and postulated that to complete the pattern one was missing between Fernworthy and Shovel Down at a point "X". This location turns out to be close to the boundary wall of the Thornworthy enclosure and Sam noticed that "at Point X the concentration of larger stones is noticable, with more than 26 'well shaped' slabs and pillars incorporated into the wall."

The suggestion is the possibility that a stone circle, or stone row, was destroyed at this location and the stones incorporated in the wall.

The references below are not about this possible feature. They are early accounts of the area by authors who all complained of sites in this area being robbed out. They maybe useful background reading. Robbed stones from nearby monuments? If these stones do not represent a destroyed stone circle or stone row, another possibility is they may have originated from some of the other monuments in the area which is also of great interest.

The photo has been reproduced with kind permission from Sam and copyright remains with Sam.

The author visited this feature on 03/03/2025 with Steve Szypko. The grid reference has been updated. We can confirm that there are substantial stones in the wall at this location which could be robbed from monuments or could just be the stones to hand for the wall builders. One of the stones has signs of a rock basin in it which suggests it was brought in from one of the nearby tors, maybe Thornworthy Tor.

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.

• Croker, J. G., A guide to the eastern escarpment of Dartmoor, (1851)
• Ormerod, George Wareing, On some British and druidical remains in the parishes of Chagford and Gidleigh, T.P.I. Vol.1 pp. 20-4 (1858)
• Ormerod, George Wareing, On the Hut-Circles of the Eastern Side of Dartmoor, Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol.20 (1864)