| More information : (SX 55487476) Cist (NR). (1)
A cist, 7 ft x 2 ft 9 ins, with the remains of a mutilated
coverstone. A flint scraper, a flint flake and a polishing stone
were found in the cist in 1895. (2)
Cist. Slight trace of mound. (3)
A massive cist, 2.0m. long, 0.8m. wide and 0.8m. deep within which, resting at an angle, is a slab 0.9m. long, 0.6m. wide and 0.1m. thick. This may be part of the cist, although the sides and ends seem complete, or a subsequent insertion. The coverstone was 2.8m. long, from 0.6m. to 2.0m. wide and 0.4m. thick has been drill split and a section removed (see photograph). There are traces of an earth mound on the west side, but if a cairn ever existed over the cist it has been entirely removed.
Sureyed at 1:10 000 on MSD and at 1:100 (see illustration). (4)
The cairn once covering the cist, at 2.2m long one of the largest on the moor, is now reduced to a slight bank around its western side. The cist was already exposed and no doubt emptied by the time of Bray's visit in 1802 but otherwise seems to have been intact until 1870, when the huge cover slab was split across the centre to make a pair of gateposts, 'by the occupants of the neighbouring public house' according to Baring-Gould, and another was cut from the western side slab. The latter was returned to its position and the separated halves of the cover slab replaced over the cavity by the Exploration Committee in 1895, the excavators recovering two flints and a 'polishing stone' from the interior during the reconstruction. (5
A very fine cist which measures internally 2.2m long by 0.9m wide and up to 0.8m deep. The triangular-shaped slab which forms the massive coverstone is up to 2.1m wide and averages 0.4m thick, a central part has been removed by stone cutters revealing a water-filled cist and a fragment of the coverslab.
A low, spread curvilinear turf-covered mound up to 0.5m high and 3.0m across on the west side is probably the remains of a cairn; elsewhere there is evidence of disturbance to the moorland peat layer. Surveyed at 1:200 scale (6).
The Bronze Age cist was recorded as a structure with an earthwork spoil heap or cairn material on 2021 Historic England orthomosaic aerial photography and visualisations of a Digital Elevation Model derived from the orthomosaic. It stands just to the south of the Merrivale south stone row. The spoil heap or remains of the cairn material to the west side of the cist measures approximately 6m north to south and 3.9m east to west. The site is scheduled (NHLE 1013429) and within the English Heritage Trust Merrivale Guardianship Area. The site was mapped from aerial sources in 2023 during the Historic England Dartmoor-Plym project. (7-8)
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