DPA conservation volunteers have begun work on a new area of Dartmoor, focusing their clearance work on four cairns in the Mardle Valley. These archaeological features are made up of small stones and had become almost impossible to spot under a covering of bracken. The first and fourth cairns of the cluster are most notable, with Mardle Valley 1 being described ad having an interesting structure, with multiple circles of stones. Mardle Valley 4 is made up of larger boulders and has been constructed in a typical round shape, which it shares with many other cairns on Dartmoor.
The Mardle Valley cairns form a linear progression of cairns running roughly south-east to north-west across the hillside parallel to the River Mardle. They are a Scheduled Monument, and play an important role in helping us to understand how Neolithic and Bronze Age communities on Dartmoor buried their dead.
Volunteer co-ordinator Sylvia Hamilton said, ‘A great day out at Mardle Cairns, near Holne, on Sunday, at last a fine day after the wet weather. The DPA Volunteers had been asked to clear the cairns of vegetation to help preserve them. There were 4 cairns in the group and, with 14 volunteers all were cleared by the end of the day. A very satisfying day’s work.’
Images: Before and after clearance at Mardle Valley Cairn 4.
On Dartmoor there are about 1,310 round cairns and over 210 ring cairns. Round cairns were built over prehistorical burials and created from stones and earth. They marked the spot where a body, or cremated ashes, were interred below ground, either in a stone cist or a simple hole. Ring cairns served the same purpose of denoting a grave site, but were made up from a ring of stones rather than a raised stone earthwork. Historians believe that these ceremonial monuments were built in the later part of the Neolithic period and the early part of the Bronze Age (2300-700BC).
Fast growing bracken can quickly engulf ring cairns, not only making them difficult to see, but also causing disturbance below ground through the action of root growth. Mardle Valley Cairn 1 is already described as ‘much disturbed’ in the opinion of historian J.R Turner, despite the Historic Environment Record noting that there does not seem to have been an excavation. Many cairns on Dartmoor have been robbed, either for grave goods or for useable building stone. Alongside this, seasonal saturation and drying of the surrounding soil can cause stone movement. Past human activity and the unforgiving climate of the moor can’t controlled when it comes to conserving archeology for the future, but ongoing vegetation management can make a real difference.
We’re extremely grateful to all the volunteers who have given their time to completely clear the cairns at Mardle Valley in the course of just one workday. Our full list of upcoming workdays can be found in our online diary and we’re always delighted to welcome new volunteers to our friendly team.
Images: Sylvia Hamilton