Withypool Stone Circle

Withypool Stone Circle

Withypool Stone Circle is located on the south-western slope of Withypool Hill. It is one of only two known stone circles on Exmoor, the other being Porlock Stone Circle. The purpose of such monuments is unknown, although archaeologists speculate that the stones represented supernatural entities for the circle’s builders. The three Brightworthy Barrows can be seen from the circle in a north-west direction.

About Withypool Stone Circle in brief

Summary Withypool Stone CircleWithypool Stone Circle is located on the south-western slope of Withypool Hill. It is one of only two known stone circles on Exmoor, the other being Porlock Stone Circle. The purpose of such monuments is unknown, although archaeologists speculate that the stones represented supernatural entities for the circle’s builders. The site was rediscovered in 1898 and surveyed by the archaeologist Harold St George Gray in 1905. The three Brightworthy Barrows can be seen from the circle in a north-west direction. A range of different Bronze Age round barrows, a type of tumulus, are visible at different points in the surrounding landscape. There is a lone tumulus 262 metres to the north-east of the circle, on the summit of Withymoor Hill, although this is so eroded that it can no longer be seen. Other Bronze Age barrows visible from the ring are the Green Barrow, the Old Barrow,. the Twitchen Barrows, the three Wam Barrows of Winsford Hill, and the barrow on top of Sherdon.

Elsewhere on Withypools Common is a collection of six stones arranged in a rough circle, which may have represented another stone circle or perhaps the kerbstones from a since-destroyed round cairn. These stone circles typically show very little evidence of human visitation during the period immediately following their creation. This suggests that they were not sites used for rituals that left archaeologically visible evidence, but may have been deliberately left as silent and empty monuments. In contrast to the two known stones circles, over seventy such monuments have been identified on Dartmoor. Instead of natural granite, unlike it has no natural granite,. instead of natural. granite, instead of granite, it has more natural stone settings, which is a different form of monument which is common across the UK.