Dartmoor Places

“About 1. m. N. of Bridford, and on a hill that sweeps abruptly down to the Teign, is Hel Tor, whence the climber to its breezy summit looks over a wide extent of East Devon, the panorama being as beautiful as it is varied.”, Crossing, p.268. William Crossing was not …

“Over this old road very large quantities of peat were formerly annually conveyed on the backs of packhorses, as I have learnt from old men who at one time worked at the turf-ties to which it leads.” Crossing, p. 55. Many moons ago the small moorland village of Peter Tavy …

  A few weeks ago I received the following email from Mike Rhodes: “Dear Tim, Firstly thank you for your excellent website. As a Devonshire lad I have long been fascinated by Dartmoor and reading your material brings back happy memories of stories told while camping for Ten Tors and letterboxing. …

Corndon Down was a very special place for the folk who roamed Dartmoor in the Bronze Age, so much so it could have been regarded as a ritual place where they buried their dead. Why? Probably because of the wide ranging vistas that can be seen from the top of …

“The quarry lies like a gash in the slope of the hills. To the dizzy edges of it creep heather and the bracken; beneath, upon its precipices, a stout rowan or two arise, and everywhere Natures has fought and laboured to hie this wound driven so deep into her mountain-side …

A popular walk around the Princetown area follows the old Great Western Railway Princetown branch track which runs around King’s Tor, Swell Tor and Foggin Tor. There are so many features of industrial archaeology to be seen in and around the quarries that the small ruins which lay below the …

“They sat in a nook of Great Links Tor, looked at the world outspread beneath them, and listened to the hiss of the wind, as it flogged heath and stone and chattering rushes. A million tiny clouds dappled the sky with pure pearl, and far beneath this apparently motionless cloth …

“The day was slowly shadowed, and the distance, rolling in sober undulations to the south, already indicated the coming change. Seaward the horizon had faded from blue to a welter of grey, and above Plymouth slant curtains of rain were falling. But the sun shone on Hessary; the clouds broke into silver beneath it and …

“Ascending the northern slope, we look around. Not a cheerful view certainly. A little moorland farm, whence a dog issues barking furiously at the presence of a strange human form, is the only human habitation in sight. On the side of the hill commanding the valley beneath, rise the low …

Updated May 2022 No doubt numerous folk have sped through Swallerton Gate on their way to Jay’s Grave or Manaton, likewise many people would have parked in the car park near to Swallerton Gate before tripping up to Hound Tor. As you can see from the aerial photograph below the …