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Take in some moorland history

31st October 2018

Categories: Visitor News

Take in some moorland history

If you’re a history buff, Devon is going to be a paradise for you with all the sites of historical significance, the market towns and the National Trust houses and gardens showing you how people lived in the past.
It isn’t just the old buildings though, Devon is also home to wonderful historical folk tales, particularly in the Dartmoor area where stories of pixies, ghosts, witch craft and more are passed down through the generations.

Any moor has the atmosphere to fire up the imagination, they are misty and picturesque and Dartmoor has lots of stone circles and memorials from the past that no one is really sure how they got there or why, so why not take a look at some of the area’s best myths and legends.

The Cutty Dyer

This is an evil sprite who lives at Kingsbridge. He supposedly attacks drunks and throws them in the river, so be wary if you plan to go out drinking!

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Yes, the supposed hound from the Sherlock Holmes novel is based on tales Sir Arthur Conan Doyle heard about Dartmoor while staying in the area. The stories say that when a nasty local squire died, a pack of black hounds were seen on the moor. Locals were so scared they encased his coffin in a small building in Buckfastleigh to stop him escaping.

The Ghostly Legion
Dartmoor is allegedly home to a group of Roman soldiers who can be seen during a full moon traversing around the moor. There are also stories of a Tudor hunting party hanging out in the area too.

Image: Buckland Abbey

Ghosts of Buckland Abbey

If you visit the Abbey, you might be lucky (or not) enough to spot one of the many ghosts that are said to haunt the place. There are rumours of tunnels connecting the abbey to the village and how Sir Francis Drake now haunts the area on a headless horse after signing a pact with the devil to make sure he won his sea battles.

The Hairy Hands

There is a bridge between Postbridge and Two Bridges in the Dartmoor area where so called ghostly hairy hands appear on your steering wheel and try to force you off the road. The story likely comes from the many accidents that happen along this road, but it was somewhere that was avoided long before cars became common place.

The Spinster’s Rock

This is one of the only Neolithic Dolmen left in Devon, it’s supposed to have been put together by three maidens one morning before breakfast. As you do. Some are convinced though that it is a group of women who were turned into stone for dancing on the sabbath.

Image: Okehampton Castle

Lady Howard

The ghost of Lady Howard is said to reside at Okehampton Castle and that every night at midnight, she takes the form of a black dog and travels between Oakhampton and Tavistock.

Fitz’s Well

There are a lot of holy wells around Devon, but one famous one is Fitz’s Well which can be found between Okehampton and Princetown. This story is that John Fitzford and his wife were lost on the moor when it became very misty, the workings of a pixie that was trying to confuse them. They managed to break the spell and found themselves at a spring which refreshed them, in gratitude they built a well house around it which is engraved IF 1568.

Kitty Jay’s Grave

Kitty Jay was a 19^th century farm worker who hung herself when she discovered she was pregnant and was disowned by her lover. Historically, suicide victims were buried at crossroads to confuse their spirits and stop them coming back to haunt the living. However, even to this day, fresh flowers appear on her grave every morning, but no one knows who leaves them. The novelist John Galsworthy based his novel, The Apple Tree, on this tale.

Now that you’re suitably spooked, enjoy your trip to Dartmoor!