Grimspound is a late Bronze Age settlement, situated on Dartmoor in Devon, England. It consists of a set of 24 hut circles surrounded by a low stone wall. The name was first recorded by the Reverend Richard Polwhele in 1797; it was probably derived from the Anglo-Saxon god of war, Grim (more commonly known as Woden, or Odin).
In 1893 an archaeological dig was carried out by the Dartmoor Exploration Committee, which recorded many details of Grimspound as well as, controversially, making a reconstruction of the site.
The site was designate as a scheduled monument in 1928.
History The site was first settled in about 1300 BC. The 24 hut circles are surrounded by a massive granite perimeter wall, which may have stood at 1.7 metres in places. The roundhouses, with an average diameter of 3.4 metres, were each built of a double ring of granite slabs with a rubble infill, a technique still used in dry-stone walling. Hut 3 has a surviving porchway, with the two jamb stones still upright, although the lintel has fallen.
There is evidence of human activity: artefacts include pottery, scrapers and pot boilers. Organic remains such as wood and textiles have not survived owing to the acid nature of the soil.
Early descriptions The name Grimspound was first recorded by the Reverend Polwhele in his "Historical Views of Devonshire" in 1793. He called it "The seat of judicature" for the River Dart area, and also surmised that it was "one of the principal temples of the Druids. Other ideas about Grimspound include supposed uses as an Iron Age fort, an encampment for tin miners and even a Phoenician settlement.Chapman, 5–7. His interpretation was as a judicial centre for a cantred of the Durius, but his comparison to the Stannary courts show he has explicitly used a modern interpretation and so may be far-fetched ideas Polwhele, R. (1793). Historical Views of Devonshire. Exeter: Cadell, p.14 Lysons was the first to measure the site, giving an estimate of the walls’ height and thickness as and a measurement of the enclosed area, alongside a description of previous interpretations: a religious site, a ‘british town’ and connected to the Birch Tor mines.Lysons, D and Lysons, S. (1822). Magna Brittania: Volume 6, Devonshire. London : T. Cadwell and W. Davies, p.cccvi He notes two entrances, one to the south (presumably the present one) and one to the north, which despite him probably not ever seeing Grimspound, the estimated measurements are fairly accurate, falling within half an acre of the actual measurement - 1.45 hectares. Others queried its function, with Burt suggesting in 1826 that the site was a walled town and a place to keep cattleCarrington, N. T. (1826). Dartmoor, a descriptive poem, with notes by W. Burt. London: John Murray, p.157 A contemporary writer named Bray supported the notion of it being a ‘town’ and referenced Strabo and Caesar's descriptions of early sites as comparisons to Grimspound Baring-Gould, S. (1894). The Exploration of Grimspound: The First Report of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee. Transactions of the Devonshire Association: 101-121, p.103 Around the middle of the 19th century, opinions begin to change. The valley position is noted and its function interpreted as defending cattle against wolves with the hut circles for the owners and cattle herders Ormerod, G. W. (1872). What is Grimspound? Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 5: 41-47, p.46 Two men resisted this change of opinion and saw the site's use as protecting the common Dartmoor mineral of tin King, R. J. (1856). The Forest of Dartmoor and its Borders. Plymouth: Roger Lidstone, p.7 Interestingly, another author highlighted its location on a possible ancient route through the break in the ridge of Hameldown.Wilkinson, J. G. (1862). British Remains on Dartmoor. Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 18, 111-133.
Grimspound was first mapped by A. C. Shillabear in 1829. When overlain on the 1990 map, the discrepancy between the two is very slight, a testament to Shillabeer's accuracy of locating features. This includes the pens, gateway, the central hut circles and even a large stone at the northern end of the site. However, the interesting points are the presence of several now-vanished features. In the western side of the enclosure, many features can be seen. To the north of the semi-circular enclosure, is a line of two parallel walls. When compared to the most recent survey, this has disappeared. The semi-circular enclosure has also vanished and, possibly due to the 1893 and 1894 excavations, many internal features of the hut circles are gone. An 1855 plan by Nick Whitely shows hut circles outlying the perimeter wall, unrecorded elsewhere.
During September 1904, Bertram Fletcher Robinson had a non-fictional article entitled The Fortress of the First Britons. A Description of the Fortress of Grimspound, on Dartmoor published in Pearson's Magazine (Vol. XVIII, pp. 273–280). This article is illustrated throughout with both drawings and photographs and it was republished during 2008 by Brian Pugh and Paul Spiring in their biography about Robinson, which is titled Bertram Fletcher Robinson: A Footnote to the Hound of the Baskervilles.
Excavation In 1893 the Dartmoor Exploration Committee began a dig at the site."The Exploration of Grimspound - First report of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee" in Report & Transactions of the Devonshire Association., no. 26 1894, pp. 101-21 The dig, one of whose members was the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould, reconstructed some of the site, a move criticised by some of the Committee at the time and also by later researchers, including R. Hansford Worth.Chapman, 8. The excavation commenced with the location of the entrance and then removing the topsoil and any loose stones, before a trench was cut through the hut circle, with straight-edged stones left in place.Baring-Gould, S. (1894). The Exploration of Grimspound: The First Report of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee. Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 101-121. pp.105-6 Once a hearth was discovered, the earth was sieved carefully for environmental finds such as charcoal, seeds and flint. Both halves of the hut circle were then cleared and the soil sieved. Once the entire hut circle had been cleared, the site was backfilled and the huts reconstructed. Whilst this was an antiquarian endeavour, several aspects of the excavation could be seen as highly progressive for the time. On many of their excavations, charcoal and bone samples were collected for museum deposition,Newman, P. (2011). The Field Archaeology of Dartmoor. Swindon: English Heritage, p.20 which along with their sieving of soil indicates an early observance of the importance of environmental evidence, perhaps to date the site or examine in a laboratory for microscopic finds. However, some aspects of their methodology were flawed, such as assumptions in what they identified as a hut or cattle pen then determining what was and wasn't excavated, and to what extent it would be excavated - some huts like Hut II had only a single trench through it.Baring-Gould, S. (1894). The Exploration of Grimspound: The First Report of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee. Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 101-121., p.105, 109 The lack of a drawing and extra information in comparison to Hut I or Hut III is further evidence of their bias.
The 1894 report surmised it was a Neolithic enclosed site and the succeeding report determined its function as a cattle enclosure, with their main reason for reaching this conclusion was the three areas of higher ground surrounding the site, making it militarily indefensible.Baring-Gould, S. and Burnard, R. (1895). Second Report of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee. The Devonshire Association, 27, 81-92, p.83 It could also be argued that they reached this conclusion due to a reliance on the time on the three-age system, which determined the dating of many sites based on the absence or presence of stone, bronze and/or iron objects - the language in the conclusion of the first report suggests that this may have been the case, too.Baring-Gould, S. (1894). The Exploration of Grimspound: The First Report of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee. Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 101-121, p.118
Post-excavation Since 1894, very little has been done at Grimspound. Many early writers of the 20th century disagreed with the conclusions of the DEC, on both dating and function. The etymology was discussed in 1919 and Watkin concluded that it was of Saxon origin, due to a Saxon etymology of Grimspound meaning 'Witches Enclosure'.Watkin, H. (1919). The Etymology of Grimspound. Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries, 10, pp.291-292. In 1927, Chanter firmly disagreed with the DEC, citing a lack of permanent occupation and therefore concluding that it was a defensive site to protect the tribe from cattle raiders.Chanter, J. F. (1927). Grimspound. Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 33, pp.87-88 In 1964 Lady Aileen Fox, a prominent Dartmoor archaeologist during the later 20th century, helped restore the site primarily to help prevent erosion that had taken place since the excavations.Fox, A. (1964). "South West England." London: Thames and Hudson, p.5 Following a 60-year gap in Grimspound literature, Griffiths re-evaluated the date, placing it within the 2nd millennium BC, making it a Bronze Age site Griffith, F. (1988). Devon's Past. An Aerial View. Exeter: Devon Books, p.37 Alongside Griffith, Fleming contextualised the site by placing it within the Hameldown reave system, giving the site a 'territory'Fleming, A. (1983). The Prehistoric Landscape of Dartmoor Part 2: North and East Dartmoor. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 49, 195-241, p.203 and then later interpreting it radically as a defensive camp for warrior bachelors.Fleming, A. (1988). The Dartmoor Reaves: Investigating Prehistoric Land Divisions (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxbow Books, p.139
Marking the 100th anniversary of the DEC's first excavations, the Devon Archaeological Society dedicated their 52nd volume to Grimspound, including articles evaluating the knowledge gained over the past 100 years, including two on Grimspound. Simon Timms critiqued the DEC excavations and identified a need to re-excavate the site and also drew particular attention to the 'massive' walls,Timms, S. (1994). 'Deep Breathing to Grimspound': Archaeologists Discover Dartmoor. Devon Archaeology Society Proceedings, 52, 1-21, pp.1-2, 8-13 both arguably important points that showed Grimspound may be more significant than had been identified before. Pattison and Fletcher also argued for a re-excavation of the site, and whilst they do not necessarily conclude a function or date, they do identify that it may have also had ceremonial or ritual protection for the inhabitants, rejecting the defensive theory due to the wall size being an illusion and not as substantial as they are thought to be - however, there is little evidence provided for this argument Pattison, P. and Fletcher, M. (1994). Grimspound, One Hundred Years On. The Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society, 52, 21-35, pp.25, 31-2 Jeremy Butler, a well known author on the archaeology of Dartmoor during the 1990s, provided a description of Grimspound that for the first time recognised possible re-occupation of the site after the Bronze Age. Although he notes there has been a lack of damage to the site between Shillabeer's survey and the book's writing, he also identifies a need for re-excavation of the site, particularly in the empty areas.Butler, J. (1991). Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities - Volume 1: The East. Devon Books, p.143, 145