This walk: 2015-5-6. Fernworthy Forest, hut circles, slotted gatepost, Lowton Brook West settlement, Assycombe stone rows, cairn, cist, Assycombe Brook settlement, Asacombe Farm, Sitka spruce cones.
Walk details below - Information about the route etc.
Old map: Ordnance Survey, Six-inch to the mile, 1st edition - 1888-1913
Google Satellite view of the area - including the GPS track of the walk (compare with the Ordnance Survey map plus track below)
Previous walk in this area: 19th January 2011.
Many of the photographs below were taken on a "recce" on the 30th April 2015.
The archaeology of this area is described in The Archaeology of Fernworthy Forest, Dartmoor, Devon: A New Survey, Phil Newman, July 2013, South-West Landscape Investigations.
Hut circle near the start of the Fernworthy Forest walk, at SX 66229 83428 ..... part of Lowton Brook West settlement .....
Slotted gatepost in the ground in the circle .....
Another view, looking down at the forest road ..... this is part of the Lowton Brook West settlement described by J. Butler (1991), Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities Vol. 2 - The North, 35.4 - Lowton Brook West, page 157. There are eleven huts in this area, with this one being the furthest north, and the largest at 9.1 metres diameter, with a stone lying in the centre being prepared for use as a slotted gatepost .....
Monument identifier .....
Feature built onto the hut wall, at the far left in the photograph above, reminiscent of an oldtime meat safe (we had one).
A waymarker along the way.
Looking back down the steep track after TRN RT at SX 66458 82983 .....
View ahead.
View halfway up the "steep" track, with the water of Fernworthy Reservoir behind ..... another hut circle (one of three here), part of Lowton Brook West settlement .....
Identifiers on a fallen post.
Part of the Lowton Brook West settlement .....
Ditto .....
The identifier.
A glimpse of Fernworthy Reservoir through the trees.
Roadblock .....
This seems to have been deliberately cut, it is about 40 years old.
Foreground, the cairn at the upper end of Asacombe Stone Row, with scant remains of a cist (only one slab remains, covered in whortleberry) .....
Smiling faces .....
Looking down the double stone row .....
As previous photograph .....
Looking up the row at a student of the notes .....
The terminal blocking stone at the bottom of the row .....
Walking down the row .....
Ditto .....
Image © J Butler
1991. Reproduced by kind permission (ref. 29 Sept. 2012).
The stone row is described by J. Butler (1991), Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities Vol. 2 - The North, 35.19 - Asacombe Hill stone rows (fig. 35.10), page 166. This double row is similar to its neighbour on Hurston Ridge, a kilometre to the east. There were an original 144 stones with only eleven now missing. It is possible that one blocking stone has been removed, as there is a peaty depression where it might have stood. It is also possible that a third row was planned but never installed, because the rows do not align well with the centre of the cairn.
A hut circle very close beside the row .....
Low-angle view of the terminal blocking stone at the lower end of the row/s
Another view .....
Looking up the whole row again .....
The row and hut circle identifiers .....
Another view .....
Another view ..... this hut is part of the Assycombe Brook settlement (over the ridge from the Lowton Brook West settlement), and is described by Jeremy Butler (1991), Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities Vol. 2 - The North, 35.5 Assycombe Brook settlement, page 157. It is 8.1 metres in diameter and less than 3 metres from the rows.
As previous photographs.
Identifier for the following photograph .....
Hut circle - this is about 100 metres below the end of the stone row, at SX 65930 82458.
Identifier for the hut circle following .....
Another hut circle, at SX 65893 82668.
View across the Asacombe Farm area at SX 6590 8279 .....
A little closer to the ruined dwelling .....
Farm house remains .....
Identifier .....
Another view .....
History lesson .....
A wider view .....
Fruiting bodies standing up on an unidentified lichen, believed to be a Parmelia (aka Hypotrachyna) species, with square-ended lobes bearing notches ..... it is black underneath .....
Looking down from above .....
Hut circle at SX 65895 82846, just a few metres to the left of the farm house when looking at it from the road - strange that such an ancient Bronze Age structure should survive so close to a modern dwelling ..... the movie shows this to be a large hut within and still-substantial enclosure. Towards the end of the movie, the remains of Asacombe Farm and it's upright stones are seen over to the right.
Dartmoor CAM
movie. TIP .....
Panorama showing a large hut circle inside a substantial enclosure, with Asacombe Farm over to the right. |
|
Click the photo to download File size: 4.7 MB. Length 28 secs |
Sitka spruce cone
Small bridge over Assycombe Brook.
The non-scented Common Dog Violet (Viola rivianna) with flowers similar to the scented Sweet Violet (Viola odorata).
Almost back to the car park .....
There!
MAP: Red = GPS satellite track of the walk.
© Crown copyright and database rights 2015. Ordnance Survey
This walk was reached from the B3212 road running from Postbridge to Moretonhampstead, turning north after the Warren House Inn to Jurston, Tunnaford, and then to Fernworthy. Pay & Display parking is available at the entrance to the forest where there are other facilities (see map), by the storage shed (yellow cross) or at the extreme end of the tarmac road.
Statistics
Distance - 4.09 km / 2.54 miles.
All photographs on this web site are copyright © 2007-2016 Keith Ryan.
All rights reserved - please email for permissions
