Celia Haddon Standing Stones in Exmoor Page

Exmoor Prehistoric Stones & Boundary Stones

Exmoor is a place of moors, mist, rain, red deer, Exmoor ponies, prehistoric barrows and standing stones in miniature. Antiquarian John Aubrey called it “a wrily and barren ground termed Exmoor.wherein there are seen certain monuments of antique work, viz stones pitched in order, some triangle-wise, others in a circle; and one among the rest with an inscription in Saxon letters or rather Danish, to direct those as it seem who were to travel that way…”
There are two stone circles, an inscribed stone, several stone rows and many three, four or five stone settings. Most of these are so tiny that it is difficult to find them under the heather or in the rushes. These are being eroded the practice of shepherding by vehicle.
"Exmoor's standing stones are so enigmatic," says Rob Wilson-North the park archaeologist. "There are no common alignments. Some settings are North-South; others are East-West." The standing stones themselves are probably late Neolithic or early Bronze Age. It is also not always easy to distinguish between stone rows and boundaries to Bronze Age fields. More of these tiny stone monuments are still being discovered - see my discovery at Thornworthy common.
In addition to the prehistoric stones there are the boundary stones defining the old Forest before it was enclosed. These are mentioned in seventeeth century documents and many are probably medieval in origin. Some of them may have originated as prehistoric standing stones. Many were built into hedge banks and are no longer visible.
For an account of the forest boundaries read History of the Forest of Exmoor by Edward T. MacDermot (Barnicott and Pearce, 1911). For an account of prehistoric Exmoor read The Field Archaeology of Exmoor by Hazel Riley and Robert Wilson-North (English Heritage 2001).
If you are lucky you may find two more delightful booklets in one of Exmoor’s second hand bookshops - Ancient Exmoor by Hazel Eardley-Wilmot (Exmoor Press 1983) and Antiquary’s Exmoor by Charles Whybrow (Exmoor Press 1970). For those who want a walk on the wild side of Exmoor with the help of a guide I can recommend Richard Medland of Exmoor Walks (www.exmoorwalks.co.uk) He is good at finding the smaller stone settings and fun to be with.

Almsworthy Common stone setting SS 84304171 BACK TO TOP

In l920s this was interpreted as two concentric ellipses with an inner circle of four remaining stones. But in l939 it was reinterpreted as a rectilinear stone setting, maybe two or three parallel stone rows. The stones are small. It is sited on a hillside looking down to Chetsford water just off the Macmillan way. There are 15 stones, three with a stone nearby which may be fallen portion. Remains of a nearby hut circle suggest that the hut, at least, was in woodland.

Brendon Two gates SS 76594363 BACK TO TOP

Once there were five stones here, a quidnunx, - four in a square with one in the middle. Now only three remain looking like a row, so the setting has lost its pattern, and thereby its original meaning. In November 2001 local archaeologists re-erected the middle stone and put down organic matting round it. They covered it and the others with thorn bushes, in the hope of preventing damage from off track vehicles and rubbing sheep. Details can be found in A Condition Survey of Standing Stones in Exmoor National Park Authority Owned Land, by Oliver Blackmore, a report by Exmoor National Park. By the time I visited in April 2003, the hawthorn was missing from highest stone. Shepherding by Landrover is a danger to these small stones.

BUTTERY STONE - SS 764 355 CHECK BACK TO TOP
This stone, not unlike the Edgerley forest boundary stone, abuts the forest wall. It stands in the bank on the road that leads from the White Ladder across Kinsford Gate to Sandyway. This is the county boundary as well as the old forest boundary. This ran from the Saddle stone, past the Edgerley stone, Lewcombe stone, Horsehead stone, Buttery stone and to the lost Longstone at Sandyway. Possibly it was a prehistoric standing stone used as a medieval marker. It stands looking down the valley into a stream, as many prehistoric stones do. Not marked on the Explorer map.

Caractus stone, Winsford Hill. SS 88983355 BACK TO TOP

The inscription reads "CARAACI NEPUS', kinsman of Caractus. The stone originally lay close to a track running out of the Exe valley. A shelter was built for it in l906. Caractus was the British leader of the rebellion against the Romans in 47-51 AD. The stone was first documented in 1219 as a Forest boundary and called the "Langeston". A little stone hut has been built round it! There seems a modern impulse somehow to domesticate standing stones, to impose our suburban mind set upon their wildness.

The practice of siting a Romano-British memorial stone, along a track way up on the hill is a Roman one - think of the tombs along the Appian Way.

Chapman Barrows Quincunx setting SS 69794333 BACK TO TOP
Five stones, a quincunx, – four in a rectangle, and one in the centre with an erosion hollow, overlooking Radworthy and the source of the Bray river. The centre was the only one standing upright in July 2004 when we visited with the National Park archaeologist. Three others were snapped off, fallen or broken – probably the result of four track vehicles on the moor. One was either missing or not visible. Once described as “particularly fine” this setting is now severely damaged. One stone was no longer visible. Time for more active protection?

CHERITON ROW - SS 7517 4379 BACK TO TOP
This is difficult to find, not least because the stones are small. When I found it with the help of Richard XX of www.exmoorwalks.co.uk, the stones we found were not quite at the map references given here but perhaps we only found one end. The other possibility is that we found Cheirton Ridge setting, not the row.

CHERITON RIDGE II - SS 7489 4428 BACK TO TOP
Easier to find, along the track that leads from Brendon Two gates across Clannon Ball to Cheriton Ridge before it joins the Taka trail. A setting of about six stones. One of them has been given some support by archeologists.

CHERITON RIDGE IV - SS 7541 4330 BACK TO TOP
From Brendon Two Gates follow the track and cross Farley Water then walk back across the ridge in the direction of Exe Plain. This is a lovely setting of seven stones looking down into the head of Farley Water.

CLANNON BALL - SS 7591 4364 BACK TO TOP
Not far from Brendon Two Gates (good parking) this is another stone setting that looks down into a valley. This is a triangular setting though my photo only shows two of the stones. These stones look more secure than some of the Exmoor settings. I visited in April when the bog pools on top of the hills (not the streams in the valley) were full of tadpoles. Exmoor must be frog heaven.

Culbone stone SS 83204735 BACK TO TOP

Discovered in l939 then rediscovered in l940. It is inscribed with a wheel cross, of a kind found in Wales. A beautiful stone in a lovely woodland setting. Nearby is the smallest medieval church in England dedicated to St Culbone, a corruption of Kil Bueno meaning "the church of St Bueno," a Welsh saint. (This not the first connection between standing stones and St Bueno. There is a St Beuno's Stone, where the saint is meant to have preached, in the parish of St Berriew where the church is dedicated to him.) As there is a stone row nearby (which I missed) it may originally have been the head of the row, the Christianisation of a prehistoric sacred site.

CULBONE STONE ROW - SS 8343 4738 BACK TO TOP
This runs through the wood from the Culborne stone, with its Christian cross, across the drive to XX farm. Some argue that the Culborne stone itself may simply have been its final stone. The row, which is on private land, is difficult to see from the Culborne stone but the end stones, the other side of the farm drive are visible from a gate.

Furzehill Common SS 7332 4450 BACK TO TOP

A stone setting of which I only found 2 relatively large and visible stones, both noticeable above the grass. The OS map simple says "stones" without giving details of the pattern. There was one at SS 73395 4488 fallen on its side. There are many loose stones, as well as erected ones, on this bit of common.

Furzehill common 11. SS 7373 4426 BACK TO TOP

A blue much polished stone part of a setting on this bit of common. There are so many settings on Furzehill common that it is difficult to be sure of which one you are looking at! It is possible that I have mis-attributed this one.

Furzehill Common stone row. SS 7382 4396 BACK TO TOP

This is a row of what was thought to be just four stones on the crest of the common - these four marked on the OS map. Because of the grass, they are difficult to find. Then in 2001 six more really small stones were found, leading up to a mound which is probably a cairn. This is a good example of how these tiny stone monuments can be missed - hidden by heather or grass for thousands of years. My picture, taken in autumn, shows only one of the stones.

Edgerley boundary stone. SS 718407 BACK TO TOP

This stands in the bank along the county border, a relatively big stone that marks the boundary. It may also been an earlier prehistoric standing stone. The Simonsbath-Challacombe road is a busy one with nowhere to park, so it is best to approach it along the Tarka trail from the so-called Sloley stone at SS 717393. Along the route there is Lew combe boundary stone - a small inscribed stone at SS 717395.
This is one of the Exmoor forest boundary stones shown in a map of c 1675.

HOCCOMBE HILL I - SS 7809 4344 BACK TO TOP
About half an hour’s walk along the track from Brendon Two Gates where there is good parking. Another stone setting looking down into the water below. These are set where the slope forms a little platform above the water. Four stones in a kind of rectangle, like the four stones (one fallen) higher up the hill at Hoccombe Hill II. It is really a four stone setting, but one has fallen.

Hoccombe Hill 11. SS 77064368 BACK TO TOP

A triangle of three medium stones looking out over the valley. This is labelled Hoccombe Hill 11 in The Field Archeology of Exmoor by Hazel Riley and Robert Wilson-North. There's easy parking at Brendon Two Gates. This isn't as big as photos look, but it is big enough to be visible - unlike some Exmoor stone settings which are hidden in heather.

HORNER MEADOW STONE - SS 89l85 4520 BACK TO TOP
Probably not a standing stone but it has its own folklore tale. “It comes down to the river to drink,” said a man doing his allotment.

LEW COMBE STONE - SS 718 396 BACK TO TOP
One of the forest boundary stones, north of Moles chamber and not far off an eighteenth century monument, called the Sloley stone on the Explorer maps. It was also known as the longstone (despite its shape) or hore stone according to Ancient Exmoor by Hazel Eardley-Wilmot. This stone marks the county border and the old forest boundary. This ran from the Saddle stone, past the Edgerley stone, Lewcombe stone, Horsehead stone, Buttery stone and the lost Longstone at Sandyway. This small squat stone has “Fortescue’ inscribed upon it, the surname of the family that once owned a great area of the forest. It stands looking down the valley into a stream, as many prehistoric stones do, so might be older than medieval. Marked as boundary stone on the Explorer map.

Long Stone Challacombe SS 7051 4307 BACK TO TOP

This is the most spectacular of Exmoor’s standing stones seen with Longstone barrow behind it. It is three meters high but made of a very thin slab of slate, with a trig stone (for keeping the stone upright) next to it, as the picture looking west into the Bray valley shows. The stone used to stand in a picturesque water-filled hollow making it vulnerable to frost damage. A natural spring nearby didn’t help. It was “consolidated” by archaeologists in 2003 using 3 tons of river washed gravel, erosion matting and a covering of peat. In the course of this remedial work, which was not an excavation, they found a bit of a car engine and three pound coins!

THE NAKED BOY, SMITHHAYES - ST 015 345 BACK TO TOP
Two stones in the corner of a field at the junction of four parishes are the broken remains of the Naked Boy boundary stone. Line drawings of it, when it was still in one piece, show an oddly curved stone with a large base and smaller top roughly pyramid shaped. It name may come from its status as a boundary stone. Boys were sometimes whipped at the boundaries, so they would never forget them. Possibly they were placed naked on this stone. The Naked Boy goes down to drink at the Beverton pond, the source of the river Tone, at midnight.

Pig Hill 1 stone setting SS 75624443 BACK TO TOP

An elaborate stone setting with 15 visible small stones, off the Lynmouth-Simonsbath road.. It is almost impossible to photograph as a whole except from the air not is it easy to see a pattern in the arrangement of stones. Once again, this is a stone setting on the hillside below the ridge, looking down to Farley Water.

Pig Hill 2 stone setting SS 758l4 4488 BACK TO TOP

A tiny setting of only three stones, all small, close to the Lynmouth-Simonsbath road. I think I found all three but the recumbent one that I photographed may have been a split off part of the remaining upright. One is a small rounded bluish stones further away from the other two. In the spring of 2003 when I was there the other upright had split into three - probably frost damage. I propped up the fallen two bits to make the photograph and reported it to the National Park authorities.
Pig Hill 2 stone setting SS 758l4 4488

Porlock allotment stone circle. SS 84514466 BACK TO TOP

Discovered in 1928, there are ten stones or stumps and eleven recumbent stones with a diameter of 24.5 m. The highest stone is nearly three feet but it is not impressive. The circle is next to a sheep pen not far from the head of Weir Water. Difficult to photograph well.

Porlock common stone row SS 84564465 BACK TO TOP

I am not sure if I found this or not. It is the other side of the road from the field with the stone circle on the common. There are several stones but the heather was high, so I could only find two of them.

Saddle stone boundary stone SS 716 435 BACK TO TOP
Mentioned in the 1651 survey of Exmoor Chase as “along to Sadley stone being abutted on the West by Linton Common.” A seventeenth map of the boundaries has a drawing looking much as it does now. In 1678 it is mentioned as “a certain stone … called sadlerstone, the said stone or boundary last mentioned having something the shape or figure of a saddle.” At the time of the final enclosure, the boundary is described as “passing by Woodburrow to a stone called Saddle Stone, which divides the parish of Challacombe from the Parish of Linton.” This is one in the line of boundary stones which started at the lost Sandy Way boundary stone, on past the Horsehead stone, past the relatively modern Sloley stone, past the Lew Combe stone, past the Edgerley stone to the Saddle stone. It was positioned 80 yards below and North of Saddle stone gate, then by l911 went missing according to The History of the Forest of Exmoor by Edward MacDermot. It is now positioned close to the gate. It may have been useful as a mounting block, though it is not very high. The gate itself has a splendid piece of stone used as a gatepost.

Slolely boundary stone. SS 718 394 BACK TO TOP
Marked on the Explorer map, this is a recent boundary stone in the shape of a gravestone erected in 1742 to mark the boundary between High Bray and Gratton Manors commons meeting the forest boundary. The facing side is marked “William Longe Oxenham Esquire Lord of the Manor of Highbray 1742”. The opposite side says “Christian Slowley Lady of the Manor of Gratton.”

Warcombe Water Stone Row. SS 7281 4427 to SS 7291 4422 BACK TO TOP

In June 2006, walking with Richard Medland of Exmoor walks (www.exmoorwalks.co.uk) I looked up from the valley between below Ruckham Combe and Warcombe Water and saw a small triangular stone on the spur of the hill at SS 7287 4424. There were four in a line (one fallen) then a gap (which may have been a track), a further two at SS 7289 4423, then another gap and one more at SS 7291 4422. In all seven stones, embedded, not loose, on a relatively stone-free hillside. They were only visible because the heather had been burned. In September I came back with the national parks archeologists Rob Wilson-North and Stephanie Knight, Richard Medland. They inspected the row and thought it was either a stone row or possibly a prehistoric field boundary - there was a bronze age settlement not far away. Then I spotted some more stones at SS 7285 4425, and a final one at SS 7282 4427 going further along the contour. The row seemed to run towards a spur of the hill looking down into the water that runs down from Ruckham Combe. The row was longer than I had thought and was between nine to 11 stones (a couple being so buried it is not clear if they counted). A further visit by English Heritage will be needed to authenticate these as a stone row, not just a field boundary.

Withypool stone circle. SS 83833430 BACK TO TOP

The heather had been burnt in spring 2003 so the circle stood in blackened earth. If the heather had been high I might not have found it at all. It is on the hillside down from the barrow overlooking West Water and the hills opposite. One way to find it is to walk up to Withypool hill tumulus, line up Tudball Splats on the opposite slope and walk towards these. There is a track through the heather.
Discovered in 1898 when 37 stones were counted. Then in l915 when they were recounted as 40 stones. Diameter is 36m. No stone is more than two feet high and most are much, much smaller. I counted 40 stones (excluding those placed in the centre of the circle, but some were so loose I am not sure if I counted the right 40!

Whit stones. SS 85324624 BACK TO TOP

They are on the boundary of the medieval forest. It is not clear if they are standing stones or merely natural outcrops. They have been suburbanised by the planting of daffodils!

White Ladder SS 73233722 BACK TO TOP

This is a long stone row, double and single rows running for a quarter of a mile but the stones are so small that they are only seen when the grass is unusually short. Of 161 stones, 61 were quartz. I found a largish stone quartz but it looked like an outcrop rather than one of the stones. I could only find one of the small stones but I did not wish to hunt too roughly in case I disturbed them. The grass was long - probably a good way to protect a potentially very fragile monument. The row is not continuous since some were in a field that was ploughed and the road interfered with some. A small rather grubby notice warns against moving stones

West Anstey long stone SS 8493 2940 BACK TO TOP

A small slender standing stone, 1.30m high, below the horizon but looking out across the valley. The most beautiful setting of all the stones I visited. In the sunlight I could see a buzzard and hear a raven. It was perfect peace.

Wood Barrow stone setting. SS 7148 4232 BACK TO TOP

Marked on the Explorer map, and in some books, as a double stone row, but described as a setting in “The Field Archaelogy of Exmoor”. The visible stones did not seem to me to be in lines when I visited in 2004. Four were visible but only three would fit into the picture. Like most of the stone settings this one looks down into a valley, Yarbury Combe head.

Wood Barrow Hangings stone setting. SS 7151 4283 BACK TO TOP

These are difficult to find being hidden by rushes. They are also positioned a little higher than the Explorer map suggests. I only found three of them, all fallen.