When is a barrow not a barrow? Why, when it’s ‘Knatt a Barrow’ of course and this Knatta Barrow sits upon its own hill – Knattaburrow Hill at an altitude of 450 metres. Here we see some typical Dartmoor confusion as various topographical writers refer to a burrow as opposed …

Attempting to even try to explain burial tombs which are around 4,000 years old is virtually impossible and full of modern-day conjectures and beliefs. Clearly the very design of ancient tombs had some significance and meaning to the prehistoric mind but trying to say exactly what is impossible. It has …

‘ … and so along the Wallebroke, and thence in a line to Furnum Regis…‘ 1240 Perambulation of the Forest of Dartmoor.  On the modern OS map Furnum Regis is recorded as , ‘King’s Oven (ruin)‘, the devotees of the Arthurian legends will argue that prior to the 1240 appellation …

Back in the Spring of 2010 a group of ramblers from Plymouth were walking by the King Wall on the western flank of Great Nodden and decided to stop for a coffee break. Whilst contemplating their surroundings one of the group spotted the remains of a stone cross set into …

Hurston Ridge is about 3 kilometres from the cottage where I used to live and made a nice stroll of an evening where I could watch the sun slowly sink into the moor. The last time I was up there it was one of those times when the wind made …

“Sunshine played over the blue hazes and touched the grey summit of Shepherd’s Cross, where the ancient stone stood erect and solitary on the heath. It reared not far distant from rough, broken ground, where Tudor miners have streamed the hillside for tin in Elizabethan days. The relic glimmered with …

Look at the OS map of Dartmoor and you cannot fail to see the hundreds on hut circles dotted around like a bad case of the measles. From this fact alone it doesn’t take much working out to arrive at the theory that at one time Dartmoor was heavily populated. …

Nestled beneath the granite piles of Houndtor are the remains of a ‘Deserted Medieval Village’ or DMV. This medieval village is said to be one of three main examples of a Dartmoor deserted settlement, the other two being Hutholes and Dinah Clark’s. The Houndtor settlement lies on a gentle north-eastern …

Just over 1.8 kilometres south-south-west of Moretonhampstead along a road known as Pound Street is a small crossroads known as Bovey Cross. This narrow road takes its name from the old North Bovey livestock pound some 640 metres further down the road. Besides the crossroads sits an ancient wayside cross, …

If ever you are travelling on the road between Holne and Hexworthy you may just spot a lone figure standing on the hillside near Combestone Tor. This is not a rambler but an old granite cross which stands on the old track known as the Maltern Way. As the Dartmoor …