MMO109 - Late prehistoric clearance cairn on Shallowford Common (Monument)

A small clearance cairn is situated adjacent to a field boundary that is thought to be part of a prehistoric field system (MMO108). Previously, the features together had been erroneously interpreted as a hut circle.

(SS 7110 4389) Hut Circle (NR). [1] SS 711439. A stoneheap 14 feet in diameter and 1.5 feet high: not a hut circle. [2] SS 7111 4389. The feature at this map reference is a small cairn 5.0 metres in diameter and 0.4 metres high. Surveyed at 1:2500. [4] SS 7111 4389. This is not a hut circle, a stone heap or a cairn. The topographical situation, on a steep slope almost on top of the Barbrook stream, precludes this feature from being a hut circle or cairn. What appears to have been misinterpreted by the previous authorities is part of the western end of a field wall, about 4 metres wide and 0.4 metres high, covered in bracken and rough grass. The wall extends up the slope to the northeast from here for some distance and appears to be part of a prehistoric or later field system extending across Shallowford Common to the north (see MMO108). [5] A small circular mound is visible on aerial photographs at this location, at the western edge of the prehistoric field system on Shallowford Common. It appears from the photograph that as well as the field wall, a clearance cairn has been constructed at this location, which has merged into the wall. [6-7] The cairn is depicted and labelled on the 2021 MasterMap data at SS 7111 4388. [8] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [9]