The four concentric stone circles of Yellowmead
Down are situated about half a mile to the south east of Sheepstor village,
between Yellowmead Down and Ditsworthy Warren. There is a barely visible
burial cairn in the centre surrounded by four rings of stones set within
one another. The circles are quite small; the outer being 66 feet in diameter
and the tallest stone 4ft 3 inches high. On the west side of the circles
there is a small double stone row leading downhill away from what appears
to be possible remnants of a fifth circle or outer arc on this side. Slightly
uphill to the north-east, there appears to be the remains of a much smaller
cairn circle. The site was discovered by Richard Hanson Worth in 1921
and restored by the Reverend Hugh Breton on behalf of the Dartmoor Preservation
Society in that year. In 2008 Bournemouth University carried out a further
investigation under the Dartmoor National Park Authority's Monument Management
Scheme. They discovered that the restoration work had been accurate and
also found a flint scraper which has been dated to the Neolithic/Early
Bronze Age periods.
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