Our first evening event at Sandridge Barton vineyard this year was a fascinating deep dive into the history and theories around Dartmoor’s ceremonial landscapes. Archaeologist Alan Endacott and Archaeoastronomer Carolyn Kennett shared their recent work in relation to stone circles, stone rows and burial monuments, including Bronze Age cists. Dartmoor has the highest concentration of Bronze Age remains in Britain, with many past generations living, farming and burying their dead on the moor. Much of this archaeology is freely accessible and well preserved, offering a wonderful oppotunity for us to learn about how Bronze Age people lived, and what was important to them.

Alan presented his talk ‘Prehistoric Ritual Landscapes of North-eastern Dartmoor’ which included many of the discoveries that he will soon be submitting in his thesis. With cutting edge image data, from Ground Penetrating Radar and electromagnetic field measuring equipment, we were able to see below-the-ground cross sections of the remains of cairns and outer bank systems around stone circles. Alan presented theories around use of these sites that may have gone in, in various and evolving ways, for hundreds, if not thousands of years. In 2007, Alan discovered Sittaford stone circle, which had been all but lost below layers of accumulated peat. Through discovering the sockets that stones would have been supported in, he was able to confirm that the fallen stones had once stood upright. Following this exciting discovery, it was DPA volunteers who helped uncover the full number of stones, which were bleached white by spending so long in the acidic peat.

Born in a Dartmoor longhouse, on the family farm near Throwleigh, Alan started collecting social history material from the age of seven and went on to become the founder Curator of the Museum of Dartmoor Life in Okehampton in 1981. He relocated this to his native Throwleigh in 2019 and is currently pursuing a life-long passion for Dartmoor’s archaeology as a self-funding PhD researcher with the University of Exeter, studying the Prehistoric Ritual Landscapes of North-eastern Dartmoor. Last year he led excavations on two more of his stone circle discoveries, near Taw Marsh, Belstone, with the help of a generous grant from the DPA.

Carolyn Kennett presented her talk, ‘The Celestial Landscape of Prehistoric Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor.’ Using a mix of modern and Victorian photographs, she took us through the rise of interest in archaeoastronomy and explained how computers can now help us turn back time and see how the night sky would have looked over ancient monuments thousands of years ago. With the axis of the earth having tilted slightly in that time, she told us that alignments in relation to the equinoxes may be up to two sun-widths out, but summer and winter solstice alignments remain unchanged. As well as seeing how constellations may have been mirrored in the landscape, perhaps indicating times for planting when the sky and earth versions aligned, we considered the spectacle of watching a rising sun ‘roll’ up the side of a hilltop or appear directly behind the silhouette of an outcrop.

Carolyn related personal experiences of standing in these special spots, marked by standing stones or at the end of stone rows, and having her breath taken away by how dawn light travelled across the landscape. Although we may never know for sure why our ancestors built some of these monuments, we can still actively share in the wonder which they engender.

A writer, researcher, historian and astronomer, Carolyn Kennett lives in Cornwall. She is the current chair of the Society for the History of Astronomy and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. She owns Archaeoastronomy Cornwall and Under Dark Skies.

Accompanying our interesting talks, attendees had the chance to sample locally made Devon wine, made using water from the River Dart. We’re grateful for our ongoing partnership with Sandridge Barton, who donate money to the DPA for each bottle of wine sold from their ‘Don’t Feed the Ponies‘ range. Our next, and final, event of the year at Sandridge Barton is our Wild Words evening on the 22nd of October, which features enthralling written words and music from a selection of Dartmoor creatives.