Yelland Stone Rows

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The Yelland Stone Row is a double row of stones whose provenance is thought to date to the Bronze Age and possibly earlier. The row is located on Isley Marsh at map reference SS490330 and was excavated by E.H. Rogers FSA in the 1930s. The stone row constitutes one of the most important megaliths in the British Isles due to its location in the intertidal zone of the River Taw and cannot be matched anywhere else in the British Isles with the possible exception of two stones located in the intertidal zone at er Lannic, Brittany, although these cannot be reliably identified as belonging to a stone row.

The rows are parallel, 34m long (approx. 113ft) and 1.8m apart. The individual stones are spaced at intervals of between 2 and 2.3m, forming lines that are oriented roughly 10 degrees south of west.

The row is no longer visible as it is covered by at least 18 inches of silt and tidal debris, It was last visible during the 1970s and was visited L.V. Grinsell.

The row is currently being researched by archaeologist Robert C. Don His work over the last seven years has suggested that the area around the row may yield evidence of an as yet unrecorded body of archaeological data that may be associated with prehistoric human activity during the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age periods.