MSO9212 - Kit Barrows (Monument)

A pair of Bronze Age burial cairns on a spur of Dunkery Hill. One has been severely robbed and is visible as a low heather covered rim 12.5 metres in diameter and 0.6 metres high; the other measures 24 metres in diameter and 0.5 metres high.

[SS 9005 4206 and SS 9003 4200] Kit Barrows [NR] [1] The Kit Barrows are two barrows 185 feet apart from centre to centre. The first, is a flattened area of stones about 75 feet in diameter, from one part of which stone appears to have been recently removed. The second, is again a flattened area of stones from which much material has been taken. There are several very large blocks of stone still lying about, some as much as 3 feet in length. The diameter of the area is 53 feet. No signs at either barrow of burnt stones which would be the result of beacon fires. Scheduled. [2,3] Both cairns have been robbed of almost all their material. They are now reduced to slight heather covered cairn rims enclosing patches of small stones, and a scatter of larger boulders. Published 1:2500 survey revised.[4] Kit Barrows: SS 9003 4200. Cutcombe 7. Levelled cairn 17-18 paces diameter. SS 9005 4205. Cutcombe 8. Almost levelled cairn 25-26 paces diameter. Both visited by Grinsell 25th May 1958. [5] Two cairns lie on a spur of Dunkery Hill, between Dunkery Beacon and Robin How, at SS 90042 42026 and SS 90073 42077. The cairn to the south (SS 90042 42026) has been severely robbed and comprises a low, heather covered rim 12.5 metres in diameter and a maximum of 0.6 metres high. Several large boulders are scattered across the centre, with a recent stone heap in the southern sector of the cairn. A depression to the south of the cairn appears to be a quarry scoop for the cairn material, being very similar to those associated with the large cairns at Robin How (MSO6251 and MSO6252). The cairn to the north (SS 90073 42077) has also been robbed. It comprises a circular heather covered bank, 24 metres in diameter and 0.5 metres high. Three stone heaps lie across the centre of the cairn, which is a flat, heather covered area. An amorphous depression to the south may be a quarry scoop for cairn material. Many small depressions and hollows between Kit Barrows and the track to Dunkery Beacon may be the result of stone extraction. The cairns were surveyed using differential GPS as part of the RCHME Exmoor Project. [6] Scheduling affirmed with new national number (was Somerset 50) on 16 October 2002. [7] Both of the Kit Barrow monuments have been transcribed as earthworks from aerial photographs as part of the Exmoor National Mapping Programme survey. The northern cairn is 23 metres in diameter and centred on circa SS 90064207. The southern mound is 15 metres in diameter and centred on circa SS 90044202. Both mounds show slight evidence for irregular, and probably damaged encircling ditches on aerial photographs of 1964, ranging from 4 to 10 metres wide. Irregularly shaped pits or scoops are visible 50 metres to the south of the southern cairn and 60 metres to the east of the northern monument. As suggested above these may be the remains of quarries for cairn building material. [8-10] The southern cairn is almost completely destroyed and most of the stone appears to have been removed, though the cairn rim remains, with a very small cairn in the middle. It lies at the junction of Cutcombe, Luccombe and Wootton Courtenay parishes . The northern cairnis a flattened area of stones, predominantly heather covered, from which much material has been taken. There are several large blocks of stone still lying within the cairn rim. [11] Little to be seen and area hard to define. Seen as a stoney area marked by heather. [12] The site was visited as part of the Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment of 2009. The southern cairn was given a survival score of 4 and the northern cairn a score of 7. [16] The site was surveyed in April 2015 as part of the 2015 Exmoor Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment. The southern cairn received a survival score of 0 and the northern cairn a score of 3. [17]