The Stone Rows of West Dartmoor
The Merrivale Prehistoric Complex is one of the most complete and accessible Bronze Age ritual landscapes on Dartmoor — a concentration of megalithic monuments on open moorland above the Walkham valley that includes two parallel double stone rows, a standing stone, a stone circle, and a number of cairns, all within a few hundred metres of each other.
The double stone rows — the principal feature — run roughly east-west for some 260 metres and 180 metres respectively, with a blocking stone at the western terminus of each. The rows are composed of small upright granite stones, none particularly large individually, but forming a ceremonially precise alignment that must have required considerable communal effort to lay out and erect. The purpose of Dartmoor's stone rows remains disputed — astronomical alignment, processional route, and territorial marker have all been proposed.
The isolated standing stone to the south-east of the rows stands approximately 2.7 metres high and is one of the largest individual standing stones on the moor. A stone circle — now reduced to a small ring of low stones — lies to the north of the rows.
For Gaussian Splat reconstruction, the site's chief challenge is the low profile of the monuments against open moorland. The stone rows are essentially ground-level features whose three-dimensionality only emerges from low-altitude raking passes that catch the shadow and form of each standing stone. The isolated standing stone, by contrast, is a strong vertical form that rewards close-range capture from multiple angles.