Dartmoor Places

It was a dark and stormy night as the Abbot of Tavistock lay in his bed listening to the wind blasting huge hailstones against his window. The large candle’s flame was flickering in the corner of his cell. For some strange reason he could not sleep, he tossed and turned …

Just above the Warren House Inn is what could be described as the most puzzling of Dartmoor features. It consists of two five foot granite blocks, each has an large inscribed ‘V’ on the upper surfaces and a round hole at each of the three nodes of the ‘V’. They …

Having recently written the ‘Dream Tor’ page I was in need of a photograph of Wind Tor and so on July 22nd 2008 I called up to the car park on the top of Dunstone Down. No sooner had I crossed the road when my eye was caught by very …

“Two Bridges is on the Dart, and is about the middle of this wild uncultivated district; a more dreary situation in winter cannot be imagined in the centre of so rich, populous, and cultivated a county as Devonshire; no wood is to be seen, and the little stock, an apology …

The reason I have included the ‘Touchstone’ under ‘Ancient Monuments’ is that this menhir is probably the first one to be erected on Dartmoor since the Bronze Age. To mark the millennium, John Powls decided it would be a fitting monument to celebrate the new century with and put his …

The Tolmen Stone is a large boulder that lies near to the bank of the North Teign river. It has a large hole that perforates through the rock and was formed by river friction erosion. The hole is said to be large enough for a normal sized adult to pass …

Nestled below the mighty Hameldon ridge is a small valley called Heathercombe, here a small stream known as ‘The Burn tumbles’ down from the moor and runs down to join the river Bovey, passing through the Heathercombe estate as it joins the Heathercombe Brook. Man has trod this part of …

Moses did go forth unto the Mount of Buckland, and the peoples of Israel gathered below on the Common of Wellstor, in much fear were they held. Upon the summit God appeared from a burning gorse bush and spoke to Moses. “Receive ye now the laws of God which you …

Another of the Dartmoor clapper bridge stars is the Teignhead Farm clapper which is located just below the now deserted farmstead. Since the 19th century the old bridge has been the subject of paintings by numerous artists such as Widgery and Brittan. The early postcard manufacturers also saw fit to …

In 1961 Ted Hughes moved to the small village of North Tawton which is just outside the boundaries of the National Park. During the 1970’s he worked on his father-in-law’s farm where he recorded his experiences in a collection of poems called ‘Moortown’. He also loved to walk the moor …