Dartmoor Places

  There are numerous place-names on Dartmoor that makes one ponder as to why they were called such. Back in the April of 2014 I received the following email which gave me cause for thought. “I have just been browsing your website with much interest and I wonder if you …

For centuries Cassiterite or tin-ore has been mined on Dartmoor. Often it was wet, cold and dangerous work and as the ‘Old Men’ of the moor began mining underground conditions worsened. It is not known how many tinners have perished down the mines but the numbers must be considerable. The …

“Smallest of villages is Gidleigh, As we turn the corner we see within an area of a few square yards the whole church-town. There is a ruined castle adjoining the dilapidated manor-house, close hugged by the little church, with a tower unusually slim when compared with its brethren. And beyond …

When is a castle not a castle? When it’s Gidleigh Castle! Although marked as, ‘Castle (remains of)’ on the OS map this is not strictly true because as the National Monuments Records explains: ‘The castle probably originated as a small fortified manor house in approximately 1300. The only remaining part …

Today, having had one of those days when you wished you had taken a ‘duvet day’ I came home and checked my emails to find the following: ‘Think the site is great and dip into it all the time. Wandered if you were going to do an article on the …

The ‘Queen of the Moor’ is a majestic tor high in the wastes of the northern fen where she rules over all she surveys. The ‘Queen of the Moor’ is commonly know as Fur tor and comprises of several outcrops. Many will argue that this is the remotest tor on …

Now here is a challenge for anybody who has not been to Fuge’s Post and does not know what it looks like. Pick a wet, foggy day, equip yourself with a map and a grid reference of SX 57153 81962 and go and find it. That was exactly what I …

There are numerous mires and bogs on Dartmoor, several of them can be treacherous places to wander into but of them all Fox Tor Mires is (undeservedly) the most notorious. It has been said that the mires are twenty feet deep and have sucked many a man and beast down …

Before the Dartmoor hills you leave, – Come taste the ale of Richard Cleave, Or if your spirits you would cheer, – Then try the spirits he sells here, – If hungry there is Dartmoor fare, – The sauce shall be the Dartmoor air, – And if fatigued and seeking …

One of the perils of walking across the moor at night is possibility of meeting with the pixies or as the moorfolk call them ‘piskies’. There are numerous stories of unfortunate people that have met them and become ‘piskie led‘. This is where the mischievous piskies envelop the traveller in …