MSO7945 - Possible prehistoric hut circle or enclosure on Porlock Common (Monument)

The remains of a prehistoric hut circle are visible at SS 8446 4431. It consists of a sub-circular platform 10.8 metres in diameter, cut into the hillside by 0.4 metres and defined by an earthen bank 3 metres wide and 0.4 metres high, which is continuous except where it has been damaged on the southern side; also an entrance, 3.8 metres wide, is visible on the north-western side. Some 60 metres to the north and 55 metres to the southwest are short lengths of stony field bank which may be associated with the hut circle (they are centred at SS 84446 44377 and SS 84393 44279). Surveyed with GPS, August 1996. [1] The site was subject to magnetometry and resistivity survey in April 2013. The magnetometry survey was dominated by iron / shrapnel and gave no convincing structural evidence for the platform. The resistivity survey also failed to provide evidence for a stone component to the earthwork, an internal stone structure or any ditches or gullies. This may indicate that this earthwork marked a small enclosure or activity area. [2] This was surveyed during a measured field survey undertaken as part of the Dig Porlock project, run by the Exmoor Moorland Landscape Partnership Scheme. [3] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [4]