Tag Archives: Dartmoor

‘Blackingstone Rock or Blackystone, as it is always called… Being well placed, and having an elevation considerably over 1,000 feet, this pile forms another point from which a magnificent view is obtained. Like Hel Tor it is seen for many miles around, but according to tradition there was a time …

“Oh, yet, ye solemn Altars! while I feel The shadowy spells of power that round ye dwell.” J. E. Reade -1843 “On the left within a farm enclosure is Bel Tor, which although only a small pile, is sufficiently interesting to call for notice. A gate in the wall will …

‘Aaron’s knock Made his chock.’ There are hundreds of boundstones on Dartmoor which mark to limits of parishes, manors, mining setts etc., some are just plain pillars with representative initials carved into them whilst others have an actual name. To me these are the most interesting because somewhere there is …

Anybody who has read the book or watched the film of, ‘The Name of the Rose’ will not be surprised at anything medieval monks got up to. Dartmoor has its own version in the, ‘Mad Monk of Gidleigh’, well to be exact, ‘The Mad Monk of Haldon’ but as the …

“James Perrott, the well known guide, the best living authority on that land of tors, of which he is, indeed, a veritable ‘walking cyclopaedia.” – J. Ll. W. Page 1895. Back in the time when there was no such thing as health and safety, personal injury claims and perceived danger …

“And near hereto’s the Gubbins’ cave; A people that no knowledge have Of law, of God, or men; Whom Caesar never yet subdued, Who’ve lawless liv’d; of manners rude; All savage in their den. By whom, if any pass that way, He dares not the least time to stay, For …

I will make a bet than any Dartmoor lover has never once thought that just maybe they would love to live in the wilds of Dartmoor, away from everybody and spend their days tramping the moor – I know I have on many occasions. Clearly in this day and age …

Childe was a wealthy man and a keen hunter, his vast estate was at Plymstock a small village to the south of the moors. Childe was happiest riding the moor alone, come rain or shine he would roam the wastes in search of game. One winters day he had been …

“I have a dream…” as most of us do but usually it does not involve transforming a whole landscape. Back in the 1800’s one man’s dream was to recreate a mystical land on Dartmoor, he wanted to bring the Isle of Mona to the moor along with a fabulous grotto …

Whilst browsing through an old publication I came across this old Devonshire dialect poem called ‘The Road to Moreton’. This refers to one of the many roads and lanes that converge at Moretonhampstead and aptly describes the journey through the various seasons. I’m not to sure what it’s alluding to …