MSO12257 - Cairn west of Woodcocks Ley (Monument)

SS 87354499. Luccombe 10. Cairn or stone heap under grass found by Grinsell in 1969. 22 paces west to east, 18 paces north to south, and 2 feet high. The name Whitburrow Wood to the south strengthens the likelihood that this is a Bronze Age cairn. [1,2] At SS 8732 4499, on a shelf on a gentle southwest slope and near the corner of a pasture field is a large cairnlike heap of stones measuring 17.5 metres east to west and 15 metres north to south. The west side is squared off with a closeby hedge otherwise the perimeter is of rather ovoid form, but not ragged. The ciarn has a flattish topof two distinct levels, separated by a scarp. The western two thirds is 0.4 metres high and the eastern third, which is turf covered, is 0.7 metres high. Much of it may have been removed to repair a farm road 15 metres to the north. The content is of medium sized stones with no visible evidence of any formal construction; indeed the impression is that of field clearance, an activity undertaken on a large scale during 1939-45 (see MSO7318) and which still continues in desultory fashion with stones being piled against hedges to the north of the farm road, and one heap which is now like a ring cairn (MSO7382). Without evidence to show that this cairn existed before 1939 there is some doubt about a prehistoric classification. There was clearly a fine cairn by the hill top prior to the war (MSO7318) and it may have been this that was the source of the name Whitbarrow Wood (MSO7350), not this particular feature. [3] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [4]