MSO7378 - Group of mounds of various dates on Tarr Ball Hill (Monument)

Four small turf covered stony mounds, varying between 3 metres and 3.7 metres in diameter, probably stone clearance cairns. A further two larger mounds may be related to peat cutting activity, or possibly Bronze Age barrows.

Centred SS 8668 4415. Four small turf-covered stoney mounds lie on level, generally featureless moorland in an area disturbed by extensive surface peat digging. They are most probably small stone clearance heaps rather than burial mounds but they appear to have been in existence before the peat was dug. Details of the mounds: SS 8671 4420, 3.0 metres in diameter, 0.3 metres high. SS 8669 4416, 3.3 metres in diameter, 0.2 metres high. SS 8668 4415, 3.3 metres by 2.8 metres, 0.3 metres high. SS 8673 4405, 3.7 metres by 3.6 metres, 0.35 metres high. [1,2] The mounds were surveyed using GPS as part of the East Exmoor Project, and the 10 figure NGRs are given above in the appropriate section. [3] Three mounds visible on aerial photographs as earthworks on Tarr Ball Hill, Luccombe parish, may be part of the group of monuments described by the above authorities. The mounds are centred approximately on SS 8678 4404, SS 8670 4409 and SS 8675 4416 [latter see MSO7418]. All three mounds are either surrounded by or associated with disturbed ground. In addition, they are greater in size than the mounds described by the above authorities, between 8 and 12 metres in diameter and. This may indicate that they are not the features described above and possibly are related to peat cutting activity, possibly peat stands rather than clearance mounds. Nonetheless, they are similar in diameter to the potential barrow MSO7381, some 200 metres to the northeast, and have been recorded as part of this group due to the potential significance of this grouping. [4-6] The mound at SS 8675 4416 has already been identified as a Bronze Age cairn and is recorded as MSO7418. It has therefore been removed from the mapping for this record. [7] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [8]