A Fresh Interpretation of Bronze Age Dartmoor. 6

Bronze Age Dartmoor. 6

The triple stone row at Cosdon is particularly interesting. The positioning of the row is critical for the most economic route to the intended destination during wet weather. After heavy rain, the Dartmoor rivers soon become dangerous to cross.The Cosdon rows indicate a route which would avoid crossing all major rivers coming off Dartmoor.

It is positioned just North of the River Teign and is directed to the The ferry crossing point to Topsham which has been a traditional crossing point up to modern times. There is the remains of a Bronze Age settlement at Topsham. The Exe may not have been the intended destination, and if the line is continued it passes through Otterton which may have been the intended destination. The River Otter was navigable by small boats until a storm caused a shingle bank to block access in historic times. Otterton was an important port in ancient times and the hill North of Otterton is called Anchorage Hill.

The original length of the row is not clear, being either 146 m or 176.5m. ( See page 205 of Dartmoor Atlas Of Antiquities.)

If the intended length was 146m and multiply by three because it is a triple row we get an overall length of 438m. 438 m at a scale of 100 to 1 gives a distance of 43.8 K which is approximately the distance to Otterton.