MDE20204 - Easternmost Bronze Age cairn at Holdstone Barrows (Monument)

Cairn C of a group of three, consisting of a low circular spread of stones some 20.2 metres in overall diameter and never more than 0.6 metres high. It has been badly robbed but has a form similar to a bowl barrow.

Holdstone Barrows, site of barrow "C". SS 6199 4768. These three tumuli have been totally destroyed. Site of "C" could not be found. It has been completely razed and the stones scattered. [1] The site was visited in May 1961 by C Whybrow and LV Grinsell. SS 6202 4768. A mutilated cairn, possibly a barrow, was noted with a diameter of 14 paces and a height of 9 inches. [2] Only very slight unsurveyable vestiges of these three barrows survive. [3] The mutilated remains of three summit cairns on Holdstone Down. The summit of Holdstone Down is now dominated by a completely modern cairn, over 2 metres in height; immediately south is an Ordnance Survey triangulation pillar. The summit is easily accessible and forms an alternative route for the South West Coast Path, which means that it is a much visited site. The three cairns are all extant, but are all in a very disturbed and robbed state. Cairn C is centred at SS 6199 4768. It consists of a low circular spread of stones some 20.2 metres in overall diameter, and never more than 0.6 metres high. The feature has been badly robbed, with hollows impinging on the mound to west and east. In addition two slight central hollows may be the result of an excavation. In construction detail the cairn seems to be composed of a central mound of stones 13 metres in diameter and 0.3 metres high, surrounded by a shallow ditch and an external stony ring 18.2 metres in diameter and 0.3 metres high. It is reminiscent of the classification bowl barrow with ditch and external bank, although its form may be in part due to excavation and robbing. Vegetation: bare, denuded surface; low heather and turf. Aspect: open in all directions except north-west. These cairns form an important group on the extreme northwestern fringe of Exmoor. Their battered condition is largely the result of a number of agencies: antiquarian interest; the inclosure of Holdstone Down (MDE8959); military activity on the Down during World War 2 (MDE8963); robbing to construct the modern summit cairn. Nevertheless it seems likely that the cairns were never of any great height, and should probably be paralleled more with the three cairns on Trentishoe Common (MDE1037) than with groups like the Chapman Barrows (MDE1061). The summit of the Downs has a very thin soil cover, and cairns B and C have been overlooked or written off in the past mainly because they are stone monuments on a largely soil-free, rocky surface. Surveyed at 1/2500. [7] Monument record reviewed as part of NRHE to HER pilot project. [6,7] The feature is depicted and labelled on the 2021 MasterMap data. [10]