MSO7327 - Bronze Age burial cairn on Tarr Ball Hill (Monument)

Luccombe 6. At SS 8627 4299 is a mound of earth and stones 9 paces across by 2 feet 6 inches high. Listed under bowl barrows. Visited by Grinsell 17th June 1962. [1] Two symbols, evidently representing ditched mounds, are shown at SS 8663 4291 and between them, at SS 8629 4291, a symbol for an unditched mound, possibly that at SS 8620 4285. [2] The only mound in the area that could be Grinsell's Luccombe 6 is at SS 8620 4285. It is a very doubtful barrow and many smaller mounds in the area suggest an association with field clearance. Surveyed at 1/2500. [3] SS 8620 4284. The mound identified correctly by [2] as Grinsell's Luccombe 6 lies just off the crest of a hill on a gentle west facing heather covered slope at 382 metres Ordnance Datum. It is about 7.6 metres in diameter and with a maximum height of 0.7 metres. The southeast side has been slightly cut back and the flattish top is 3.6 metres across. Probing revealed it to be composed of stone although none is evident in the peat covered surface. It is almost certainly a burial cairn rather than a stone clearance heap, and comparable in both size and form to the cairn (MSO7334) 700 metres to the southwest on Wilmersham Common, from where it is visible as a prominent mound on the skyline. The surface of the hillside has been heavily disturbed by extensive peat cutting, many low peat "swellings" and irregular peat baulks are clearly evident around deep amorphous and irregular depressions. The small mounds noted by [2] are almost certainly residual peat lumps: no other type of mound was identified in the area (see also MSO9199 and MSO6723). The cairn and these extensive peat workings are visible on aerial photographs. [4,5] The cairn is as described by [5]. It was surveyed by GPS as part of the East Exmoor Project and lies at SS 86202 42860. The references to MSO9199 and MSO6723 appear to be erroneous. Two mounds associated with peat working are recorded as MSO7437. [6] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [7,8]