Dartmoor Places

Fingle Bridge, its very name sounds like something straight from the pages of a fable story, does it not conjure up images of piskies, woodland spirits, or witchcraft? I would imagine that Fingle Bridge has been on the tourist route since the early 1800’s and the move towards the picturesque …

Just outside of Princetown there is what looks like a small circular enclosure, this is Fice’s Well. If legend is to be believed it has stood here for 437 years and the spring was the source of salvation for John Fitz. One day he and his wife were riding on …

Another interesting exercise with the place-names of Dartmoor, many of these you will find are no longer marked on the OS map and have become lost somewhere in the past. So here we go…’Old Dart Mo-or had a farm, ee i ee i o, and on this farm there were …

In October 2014 the Dartmoor National Park Authority announced that due to the severe storms of February that year Swincombe Bridge was badly damaged and following an inspection in the summer was deemed unsafe and so was closed. Further inspections showed that the damage had worsened and so the bridge …

Lost amidst a huge coniferous forest is a small insignificant hill that is now called ‘Ephraim’s Pinch’. Many people see this name marked on the Ordnance Survey map and wonder what it refers to. It actually relates to a sad story about a local man called ‘Ephraim’. He was a …

“Proceeding a short distance up river we reached a very charming cascade; it is not of great height, but is interesting, and its situation in this wild and deserted spot renders it peculiarly attractive. A ledge of rocks stands in the channel, over which the stream falls, and amid the …

‘The frantic seer Here built his sacred circle ; for he loved To worship on the mountain’s breast sublime— The earth his altar, and the bending heav’n His canopy magnificent. The rocks That crest the grove-crown’d hill he scooped to hold The Lustral Waters ; and to wondering crowds And …

Just outside Widecombe-in-the- Moor is Lower Dunstone which today is just a small collection of houses. On a tiny triangular green stand two granite artefacts, one is a granite cross and the other is a huge boulder called ‘The Dun Stone’ or alternatively the ‘Rent Stone’. On early Ordnance Survey …

A labourer from the little village of Harford had heard some old ladies saying that anyone who went to Duck’s Pool and remained there until after midnight without getting piskie led would be rewarded by the faeries. So being stony broke the man decided that he would risk the wrath …

A long time ago came a man on a track Walking thirty miles with a pack on his back And he put down his load where he thought it was the best Made a home in the wilderness He built a cabin and a winter store And he ploughed up …