Tracks & Boundaries

Abbot's Way, The

Church Way, The

Dartmoor Peat Passes

Forest of Dartmoor

Maltern Way

Perambulation, The

St. Michael's Line

Travelling the Moor

Way of the Dead

Dartmoor is criss-crossed by a network of ancient tracks and paths. Some were of early monastic origin, others were trans-moor tracks used to carry goods and people across the moor. Many were paths that miners, quarrymen and peat cutters took to get to and from their work. Then there were the tracks, lanes and cuts used by the moor farmers to move their livestock to pasturage or return them home for the winter. Then there were the Church Paths people used to get to their places of worship which in some cases could be a walk of many miles. All in all there were not many places on the moor that a track, path, lane or road would not lead to.

Then there were the boundaries, Forest, parish, estate, manor, plus a whole plethora of other boundaries such as mine, range, prison, waterworks and quarries to name but a few. It nearly seems that everything was owned by someone and everybody wanted to delineate their lands. This was done by a mixture of natural features and carefully placed stones or sometimes metal spikes. Today there are still bounds, there is the boundary of the National Park for starters, lands owned by the Preservation Society as well as the parish bounds. Therefore this category is devoted to tracks, paths, bounds both ancient and modern, and their legends and history.