Almsworthy Common

Almsworthy Common is a small area of unenclosed land in Exmoor, south-western England. It contains a number of archaeological sites.

It is about 2 miles north of Exford roughly 0.5 km2 in area, and the Macmillan Way West passes through it, as does the parish boundary between Exford and Porlock. It reaches a height of 453 metres.[1]

Stone settings are arrangements of upright stones either scattered randomly or in a roughly geometric pattern.[2] They are the most common form of stone monument found on Exmoor, with 57 conclusively recorded examples in this area.[2] A large number are known to have existed but have been destroyed.[2]

560 m south west of Chetsford Bridge is a stone alignment.[3][4] The archaeologist Aubrey Burl stated that an "eye of faith" was needed to identify "either a ring or a set of rows."[5] The Ordnance Survey list it as a "Stone Circle" on their map.[5] In his 1970 study of the archaeology of Exmoor, Leslie Grinsell thought that it was "probably" a stone circle.[6]

The common is also the site of one of the best preserved hut circles on Exmoor.[7]

References

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 map
  2. 1 2 3 Riley & Wilson-North 2001, p. 27.
  3. ↑ "Almsworthy Common: a stone alignment 560m south west of Chetsford Bridge". Historic England.
  4. ↑ "MSO6727 - Prehistoric stone setting on Almsworthy Common". Exmoor Historic Environment Record. Exmoor National Park. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  5. 1 2 Burl 2005, p. 76.
  6. ↑ Grinsell 1970, p. 38.
  7. ↑ "MSO6736 - Almsworthy Common Hut Circle". Exmoor Historic Environment Record. Exmoor National Park. Retrieved 31 December 2017.

Bibliography

Burl, Aubrey (2000). The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-08347-7.
Burl, Aubrey (2003). From Carnac to Callanish: The Prehistoric Stone Rows and Avenues of Britain, Ireland and Brittany. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
 ———  (2005). A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11406-5.
Gillings, Mark (2015a). "Excavation and Survey at Porlock Stone Circle and Row, Exmoor". Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society. 158: 1–28.
 ———  (2015b). "Betylmania? Small Standing Stones and the Megaliths of South-West Britain". Oxford Journal of Archaeology. 34 (3): 207–233. doi:10.1111/ojoa.12056.
Grinsell, Leslie V. (1970). The Archaeology of Exmoor: Bideford Bay to Bridgwater. Newton Abbot: David and Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-4953-3.
Fowler, Martin J. F. (1988). "The Standing Stones of Exmoor: A Provisional Catalogue of 62 West Somerset Sites". Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society. 132: 1–13.
Hutton, Ronald (2013). Pagan Britain. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-19771-6.
Riley, Hazel; Wilson-North, Robert (2001). The Field Archaeology of Exmoor. Swindon: English Heritage. ISBN 1-873592-58-2.

Coordinates: 51°09′46″N 3°39′21″W / 51.1627°N 3.6559°W / 51.1627; -3.6559

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