Location: Devon, Near Princetown.

Description: This stone circle of 19.8 x 17.8m (65 x 58ft) is about 360m (1180ft) south of the B3357 road and near some beautiful stone rows and a standing stone, in dramatic moorland scenery. The eleven remaining stones of the circle, of local granite, are only 30-45cm (1ft to 1ft 6in) high. This area of Dartmoor is littered with prehistoric sites, but most of them are hard to find and difficult to reach without a good map: the Merrivale stone group is the most easily accessible.  

The Standing Stone:

Description: Among the turf and rocky outcrops of Dartmoor, about 0.5km (0.3mi) from the village of Merrivale, is a fine 3.2m (10.5ft) standing stone. This stone is part of a complex including the stone circle, a burial cist, a series of stone rows and numerous hut circles - the houses of the Bronze Age people who created and used this sacred area.  

The Stone Rows:

Description: Dartmoor is littered with the relics of prehistoric sites. Unfortunately, to visit most of them necessitates a long walk across rough terrain, and the moor-land is a dangerous place to get lost. The Merryvale stone rows, however, are within sight of the B3357 road.

On Dartmoor there are over 60 known stone rows, but the most impressive examples are also the most inaccessible. These rows, some of which have little cairn-circles at their higher ends, are still an enigma: no one knows for sure why they were built. They are not for astronomical observation. They are too low, too far-stretched across the waves of moorland, too sinuous for any sightings along them. And when they are double, they are too narrow (usually less than 1m - 3ft wide) for a procession. Some rows are in good condition, but most have been robbed of many of their stones for walls and roads.
    

At Merrivale there are three rows: two double and a single. Both the doubles run east to west, but they are not parallel. The first one you reach from the road is 182m (596ft) long, and it contains some 170 stones, but some are very small. Further south -27m (30 yds)- is a longer row (264m - 865ft) containing over 200 stones. Its eastern end is blocked by a large triangular stone. The third row, the single one, is very short (43m - 140ft) and with very few stones, leading in a south-westerly direction.
    

The Dartmoor stone rows belong to a period well into the second millennium BC, when earlier traditions had become overlain with local variations in ceremonial.