More information : The cistvaen on Dundry Hill figured by Phelps (c) looks entirely unlike a prehistoric monument. Probably it was a Phoenix Park class of monument. (1)
ST 553 667 The Soldiers' Grave, Dundry, lies south of the church and immediately north of the OS triangulation point, on the one part of this area of Dundry Hill that has not been quarried. Nothing now visible, but the available evidence (a)(b)(c)(d), points to there having been a prehistoric chambered tomb covered by a mound on the site. (2)
There is nothing to indicate the site on the ground, but from the description in (2), it must have been at ST 5533 6672. (3)
Collinson (1791) says that on the western summit of Dundry Hill is 'a poor forsaken building' erected for a beacon house. It is described as constructed of two leaning slabs with an arched doorway 3ft high and 2.5ft wide. The room within was 5.5ft long and 5ft wide. This structure is illustrated in the Braikenridge copy of Collinson and appears to be a crude hut (AO 65/236/586).
Phelps mentions a cistvaen of huge stones south of Dundry Church, and has what may be an imaginative illustration of a table-like structure consisting of a large stone slab on four uprights.
It is speculative as to whether there was a prehistoric structure at Dundry which could have been adopted or rebuilt to form the stone hut, which was destroyed long before any precise siting was recorded. (2)(4)
ST 5535 6674: Site of a mysterious monument destroyed between 1840 and 1890, just to N of OS triangulation point amongst old stone quarries. It is recorded as a doubtful chambered long barrow by Grinsell. (5-6)
|