Tag Archives: Dartmoor

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 …

Just outside of Princetown there is what looks like a small circular enclosure, this is Fice’s Well. If legend is to be believed it has stood here for 437 years and the spring was the source of salvation for John Fitz. One day he and his wife were riding on …

Lost amidst a huge coniferous forest is a small insignificant hill that is now called ‘Ephraim’s Pinch’. Many people see this name marked on the Ordnance Survey map and wonder what it refers to. It actually relates to a sad story about a local man called ‘Ephraim’. He was a …

‘The frantic seer Here built his sacred circle ; for he loved To worship on the mountain’s breast sublime— The earth his altar, and the bending heav’n His canopy magnificent. The rocks That crest the grove-crown’d hill he scooped to hold The Lustral Waters ; and to wondering crowds And …

A labourer from the little village of Harford had heard some old ladies saying that anyone who went to Duck’s Pool and remained there until after midnight without getting piskie led would be rewarded by the faeries. So being stony broke the man decided that he would risk the wrath …

Having received several emails regarding Beatrice Chases‘ mythical Dream Tor it may be an idea to try and search for the evidence for it. I must confess not having much interest in the author I never really bothered with where or what it supposedly was. In fact although I have …

High on the northern side of the Deancombe Valley stands a huge rock known as the ‘Cuckoo Rock’ and this has been a point of pilgrimage for many years. There are several versions as to why it is so called, firstly there are those that consider the shape of the …

Just on the southern edge of Dartmoor’s northern fen is a small tor which when observed on the skyline presents a remarkable silhouette which is said to resemble a sitting bird, to be more precise a crow and hence the tor is known as Crow Tor. There is some unexplainable …

“Nor waving crops, nor leaf, nor flowers adorn Thy sides, deserted Crockern. Over thee The winds have ever held dominion ; thou Art still their heritage, and fierce they sweep.” Carrington. 1826 Crockern tor is more a place of history than mystery, probably of all the granite outcrops on Dartmoor …