Long Stone Challacombe SS 7051 4307 is the most spectacular of Exmoor’s standing stones seen with Longstone Barrow behind it. It is three meters high but made of a very thin slab of slate, with a trig stone (for keeping the stone upright) next to it, as the picture looking west into the Bray valley shows. The stone used to stand in a picturesque water-filled hollow making it vulnerable to frost damage. A natural spring nearby didn’t help. It was “consolidated” by archaeologists in 2003 using 3 tons of river washed gravel, erosion matting and a covering of peat. In the course of this remedial work, which was not an excavation, they found a bit of a car engine and three pound coins!
Challacombe Long Stone
Challacombe Long Stone
Just above Challacombe and at the source of the River Bray and the best known of Exmoor's sacred places. It is a nine foot tall, thin, wide slab of slate quarried from Swincombe Rocks to the south and set just below the ridge pointing down the stream.
It is now surrounded by a shallow bog, although in ancient times the climate was warmer and drier and there was less peat than there is now. Near to the Challacombe Longstone is Longstone Barrow on a crest, a line of three stones, a rectangle with 2 stones upright and 2 lying down and a quincunx. The number of Barrows and stone settings by the Longstone suggest a very important site.
The Challacombe Longstone
The Challacombe Longstone
The Challacombe Longstone
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