MEM22811 - Bronze Age cairn southeast of Dunkery Beacon (Monument)

Summary

Known as Cutcombe 6, this is a Bronze Age cairn with an overall diameter of 20 metres, with much of its perimeter defined by a turf covered rim bank of small stones enclosing a central platform upon which is a more recent 'shelter'.

Please read the Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record .

Type and Period (1)

Protected Status

Full Description

(SS 8916 4155) Mutilated cairn at `A' . [1] 'A' at SS 8918 4156, is a very disturbed cairn. Listed by Grinsell as Cutcombe 6. (GPs AO/65/136/3 & 4). Surveyed at 1:2500. [2] Cutcombe 6. Visited by Harold St George Gray on 10 May 1928 and by Grinsell on 25 May 1958. 17 paces diameter and 2.5 feet high, although precise measurements were difficult to obtain as it is a cairn which has been added to periodically. [3] SS 89154156. Cutcombe 6, Vowles A, south east of Dunkery Beacon, diameter 18 metres. Vowles claimed the cairn had a stone retaining circle and traces of an outer circle, both are shown on his plan. The circle around the site has probably since been removed by vandals. [4,5] SS 8918 4157. Cutcombe 6, Scheduled Monument SO 49b. A cairn 30 metres southeast of MEM22803. It has an overall diameter of 20 metres with much of the perimeter defined by a turf covered rim bank of small stones. This bank, 0.2 to 0.4 metres high, encloses a central platform at best 0.3 metres above ground level and mostly much less. The south east half is turf covered and the basal stones are concealed, elsewhere they are of small size, about 0.1 to 0.2 metres across. In the northeast, and 1 metre inside the rim bank and concentric with it, there is an 8 metre arc of fairly contiguous stones. Generally 0.5 metres long, and between 0.2 and 0.3 metres thick, their tops are flush with the platform but distinctive in that they are much larger than the other material. A further line of five similar stones is 2 metres inside the previous arc, i.e. 5 metres from the platform centre, but these are irregularly spaced over a length of 5 metres. Both confirm Vowles claim [4] to have seen two circles. At the centre of the platform a "shelter", 5 metres long and 4 metres wide, has walling of piled stones, up to 0.5 metres high, evidently robbed from the cairn and probably from the retaining circles. [6,7] Cutcombe 6 is a very eroded Bronze Age cairn with a low circular mound and spread of stones averaging 21 metres in diameter. The central part of the monument is a spread of fist-sized surface stone with the remnants of two concentric kerbs protruding, chiefly on the northern side. The stones that make up the curb are a combination of edge-set and upright stones 0.4 metres high and up to 0.8 metres long. At least four quarries surround the cairn. It is likely that these are contemporary with the construction of the cairn. [8] The five cairns on the summit of Dunkery Beacon were surveyed in August 2004 in response to a request by The National Trust to cover some of the monuments to protect them from further visitor damage. [9] The cairn was transcribed as closely as possible from aerial photographs as part of the Exmoor National Mapping Programme survey, but in spite of its size it is not clearly visible, due in part to the vegetation cover of this area and the erosion caused by visitors to the site. [10-17] The Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment of 2009 gave the site a score of 3. [18] The site was surveyed in April 2015 as part of the 2015 Exmoor Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment. It was given a survival score of 3. [19] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [20,21]

Sources/Archives (21)

  • <1> Map: Ordnance Survey. Various. Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date) . Six inch correction (LV Grinsell, Undated).
  • <2> Unpublished document: PITCHER, GHP. 1960s. Field Investigators Comments. Ordnance Survey visit, F2, 21 June 1965.
  • <3> Article in serial: Grinsell, L.V.. 1969. Somerset Barrows, Part 1: West and South. Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Nat. 113. 30.
  • <4> Monograph: Vowles, A.. 1939. Exmoor: Dunkery. Unknown.
  • <5> Article in serial: Grinsell, L.V.. 1987. Somerset Barrows: Revisions 1971-87. Somerset Archaeological & Natural History Society. 131. 23 and notes for publication.
  • <6> Technical drawing: Quinnell, N.V.. 1987. Dunkery Beacon/ink survey . 1:1000. Permatrace. Pen and Ink.
  • <7> Unpublished document: Quinnell, N.V.. Field Investigators Comments. RCHME Field Investigation, F1, 5 August 1987.
  • <8> Report: Cutler, G.. 2001. Dunkery Beacon: Survey of Prehistoric Burial Mounds.
  • <9> Report: Fletcher, M.. 2004. A new archaeological survey of: the summit cairns on Dunkery Beacon. English Heritage.
  • <10> Aerial photograph: Various. Various. Vertical Aerial Photograph. SS 8941/3 (15431/17) (15 May 1996).
  • <11> Aerial photograph: Various. Various. Vertical Aerial Photograph. SS 8941/6 (15431/20) (15 May 1996).
  • <12> Aerial photograph: Various. Various. Vertical Aerial Photograph. SS 8941/9 (15450/13) (15 May 1996).
  • <13> Aerial photograph: Various. Various. Vertical Aerial Photograph. SS 8941/32-3 (24028/17-18) (9 August 2005).
  • <14> Aerial photograph: Various. Various. Vertical Aerial Photograph. NMR RAF CPE/UK/1980 (F20) 4171-2(11 April 1947).
  • <15> Aerial photograph: Various. Various. Vertical Aerial Photograph. NMR OS/73109 956-7 (29 April 1973).
  • <16> Aerial photograph: Various. Various. Vertical Aerial Photograph. ENPA Infra-red 2248-9 (20 April 1982).
  • <17> Archive: 2007-2009. Exmoor National Park NMP: SS 84 SE. MD002185.
  • <18> Report: Bray, L.S.. 2010. Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment 2009, Exmoor National Park.
  • <19> Report: Gent, T. and Manning, P.. 2015. Exmoor National Park Scheduled Monument Condition Survey 2015. Archaedia.
  • <20> Digital archive: Historic England. Various. National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE) entry. 35990, Extant 8 March 2022.
  • <21> Digital archive: Historic England. Various. National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE) entry. 35995, Extant 8 March 2022.

External Links (1)

Other Statuses/References

  • Exmoor National Park Authority HER number: MSO9187
  • Local List Status (Rejected)
  • National Monuments Record reference: SS 84 SE14
  • National Monuments Record reference: SS 84 SE15
  • National Trust HER Record
  • NRHE HOB UID (Pastscape): 35990
  • NRHE HOB UID (Pastscape): 35995
  • Somerset SMR PRN: 15351

Map

Location

Grid reference Centred SS 8918 4156 (24m by 22m)
Map sheet SS84SE
Civil Parish CUTCOMBE, WEST SOMERSET, SOMERSET

Finds (0)

Related Monuments/Buildings (1)

Related Events/Activities (4)

Record last edited

Mar 8 2022 2:31PM

Feedback?

Your feedback is welcome. If you can provide any new information about this record, please contact us.