Ringmoor stone row and cairn circle facts for kids
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 Location in Devon
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| Location | Devon |
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| Coordinates | 50°28′29″N 4°01′33″W / 50.474821°N 4.025792°W |
| Type | Stone row and cairn circle |
| History | |
| Periods | Bronze Age |
The Ringmoor stone row and cairn circle is a very old monument from the Bronze Age. It is found on Ringmoor Down in Devon, England. This special site includes a long line of stones (a stone row) and a circle of stones around a burial mound (a cairn circle). It's located about three miles east of the A386 road, near the village of Shaugh Prior. You can find it about 300 metres north of the Brisworthy stone circle. This area, known as the Upper Plym Valley, has many interesting ancient sites like this one.
Contents
Exploring the Ringmoor Stone Row
The stone row at Ringmoor is a very long line of stones. It stretches for about 356 metres, which is longer than three football fields! Most of the time, it's a single line of stones. However, in some parts, you'll see two lines of stones running side-by-side.
What is a Stone Row?
A stone row is simply a line of upright stones. People from the Bronze Age, thousands of years ago, built these. We don't know exactly why they built them. They might have been for religious ceremonies, to mark important places, or even to track the sun or moon.
Discovering the Cairn Circle
At the southern end of the stone row, you'll find a cairn circle. This is a circular area of stones that surrounds a central mound. The entire circle is about 12.6 metres across. The mound in the middle, called a cairn, is about 9.5 metres wide and 0.4 metres high.
What is a Cairn Circle?
A cairn circle is a type of ancient burial site. A cairn is a pile of stones, often used to cover a grave. A cairn circle means there's a ring of stones around this burial mound. These sites were important places for the people who lived here during the Bronze Age.
The Northern End and Missing Stones
At the very northern end of the stone row, there is a single standing stone. This stone marks the end of the long line. Over time, many of the stones from the row have gone missing. It looks like people took them to use for other buildings or projects.
The cairn circle also had some stones taken away. By the early 1900s, only one stone was still standing in the circle. Four others had fallen over, and there were pits where six more stones were thought to have been. In 1909, people worked to restore the circle. They brought in five new stones to help rebuild it to how it might have looked long ago.
