Historic Dartmoor

The Whit Moor or White Moor stone circle has to be one of the remoter of Dartmoor’s stone circles. It nestles on the southern end of Little Hound Tor from where it surveys far and wide. Dotted in and around the surrounding landscape are Bronze Age settlements, cairns, stone rows, …

On the 7th of February 2014 BBC South West aired the much awaited half hour film called ‘Mystery of the Moor‘. Produced by Andrew Brown of Totnes based De Facto films the programme featured on the latest revelations to come from the Whitehorse Hill Kist and its burial goods. The …

During August 2011 it was announced that excavation had begun on a prehistoric kistvaen that had been discovered on Whitehorse Hill 10 years ago. Following on from that excavation it was announced in February 2013 that preliminary findings regarding the grave goods in the kist were, “the national park’s most …

During August 2011 it was announced that excavation had begun on a prehistoric kistvaen that had been discovered on Whitehorse Hill 10 years ago. The Dartmoor Preservation website announced that ‘The site was first discovered in 2001 by Joe Turner when the western edge of the cist was exposed as …

I was searching through my letterbox stamp collection when I came across the one for Peterstone Rock Iron Age Hillfort. It is a superb hand-cut stamp made by the Dartmoor Drifter and the name ‘Peterstone’ is an alternative for White Tor which stands by Langstone Moor near Peter Tavy. The …

Having already posted a page on Eastern Whittabarrow it only seems logical to do the same for Western Whittaburrow. This also kills two birds with one stone as the cairn is also home to Petre’s Cross so you get two for the price of one. Depending on what is referred …

“Regaining the road, I go on towards Moreton, taking another circuitous route to visit the fine old cross on Week Down, just above Middlecott. It has an incised Maltese Cross on both sides at the intersection of the arms, which are probably more modern than the cross itself, as the …

‘Westward we have that beautiful ravine called Tavy Cleave, through which the river beneath leaves its mountain home, overhung on the one hand by a succession of rocky pinnacles, of which Great Tor – locally Gert Tor – is the boldest, and on the other by the steep bluff of …

As the ‘Way of the Dead’ or the Lych Way morbidly winds its way down from Lydford Tor it reaches the river Cowsic and  Conies Down Water at a ford known as Traveller’s Ford. On the west bank of Conies Down Water stands a large, black boulder that sits silently …

Back in the October of 2009 the sensational headline of ‘Atlantis and Mini Stonehenge Found in Devon‘ hit the archaeological world. It was referring to the discovery of some Bronze Age monuments when the Tottiford reservoir was drained for purposes best known to South West Water. At that time I …