Whitehorse Hill Cist, Okehampton, Dartmoor National Park
Whitehorse Hill is a remote, shallow-domed hill on Dartmoor National Park's north plateau. A cist is a prehistoric burial chest made from slabs of granite. In 1999, a cist was discovered on Whitehorse Hill. In 2011, this burial chest was excavated. It was the first excavation of a prehistoric burial chest in Dartmoor National Park for over a hundred years and revealed cremated remains in addition to a high number of personal items. These are exceptionally rare on Dartmoor given that the acidic soil eats organic matter and indicate the excavation's importance.
Today, the cist is visible in a mound of peat on top of Whitehorse Hill. The cist is near the peat pass memorial that rises along the eastern flank of Whitehorse Hill. We've located Whitehorse Hill Cist on Google maps so zoom in on the 'Satellite' setting to see its location. To visit, choose a route description from our Whitehorse Hill listing.
In late 2014, an exhibition called 'Whitehorse Hill: A Prehistoric Dartmoor Discovery' started at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery. An intimate exhibition, its focus on the burial chest and its human story made it very moving. The exhibition told the story of a girl or young woman being cremated after her premature death. The remains and possessions were then wrapped in a bear skin and placed in the cist. There were also the remains of grass and, most poignant, flowers. To learn more, buy a copy of Dartmoor National Park Authority's 'Whitehorse Hill: An Early Bronze Age Burial'. These are availble in Dartmoor National Park Visitor Centres.
Dartmoor is an internationally important Bronze Age landscape. It's packed with prehistoric sites. There are many other cists you can see. Try those at Fernworthy, Bellever and Merrivale. To learn more about Dartmoor's prehistory, we'd recommend a day at Okehampton's Museum of Dartmoor Life or a trip to the Postbridge National Park Visitor Centre.
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