MSO6989 - Hoaroak Hill Sheepfold (Monument)

Small circular banked enclosure with entrance in northwest corner. [1-3] SS 7457 4313. A sheepfold shown and annotated 'Sheepfold' on the 1890 Ordnance Survey map [4]. It is set on a slight shelf, about 360 metres above Ordnance Datum, on a northeast facing slope in an area of rough grass and bracken. It is 18 metres in diameter within a turf bank 3 metres wide and up to 1.1 metres high. The turf has come from a surrounding external ditch about 2 metres wide and 0.5 metres deep. There is a causewayed entrance about 1 metres wide at the northwest. It is reminiscent of sheep stells in the Scottish Borders and probably dates from the late 19th Century when it was introduced to the moor by the Scottish shepherds brought in by Frederick Knight. Published Survey 1:2500 accepted. [5] The circular sheepfold, as described above, is clearly visible on aerial photographs. According to Burton [6], Robert Little, a shepherd from Dumfries-shire employed by Frederic Knight in the mid-19th century, mentions the construction of circular sheep stells as an inexpensive method of farming sheep in his notebook in 1879. It seems likely that he introduced this particular technique to Exmoor, perhaps as a direct result of the adverse weather conditions in 1878, in which many sheep were lost on Exmoor. [6-8] This site is mentioned in the 2013 report by Hazel Riley, a field survey and synthesis of previous projects in the Hoaroak Valley, funded by the Exmoor Moorland Landscape Partnership Scheme. [9] The sheepfold is depicted and labelled at SS 7457 4312 on 2020 MasterMap data. [10] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [11]