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Spooky tours for Halloween

17th September 2021

Categories: Visitor News

Today's guest post is from David Phillips at Moors and More Tours.

Image: Lydford Castle

As the nights draw in, the smell of wood smoke in the air, leaves piling up on the ground and the streets getting foggy at dusk, thoughts turn to that spooky time of the year...Halloween! My favourite!

How about doing something different this year to celebrate the season, and let us take you on a spine-tingling tour of the wilds of Dartmoor, where we will share with you all the mysterious tales of ghostly hauntings, the weird workings of the local witches and dastardly deeds of the Devil himself! In fact, one of our tours is devoted to a quest the Devil undertook to claim the soul of a gentleman who had made a pact with him for seven years good luck as a gambler. When it was time to pay up, the Devil heard that his victim was to be found on a Sunday, playing cards with his pals at the back of Widecombe in the Moor church, during the service. As you can imagine the Devil isn’t a great church goer, even though he visits the moor quite often, so he needed assistance in his quest.

Image: Widecombe in the Moor.

During our tour we will take you to the Tavistock Inn, where he stopped to ask for directions, got himself a cheeky free pint and left a scorch mark on the bar top, when he placed his tankard back down, which can still be seen today! We then follow his course to the church, where the Devil snatched his prey, causing death and destruction in the process, but was it his fault, or a random strike by a thunderbolt? We take you inside and help you make up your own mind.

Finally, on this journey, we stop outside the Warren House Inn, second highest pub in England, where allegedly the fire never goes out, and view a lasting memorial to the unfortunate Jan Reynolds, visible on the hillside opposite...the Ace Fields. The spot where he lost his pack of cards, and, where they landed, up sprouted four stone enclosures, each in the shape of one of the suits of cards. But are these events true, you ask yourself? Come with us as I share the evidence with you.

On this tour we will also show you the Bowerman's Nose, a symbol of what happens if you upset the local witches! Followed by a stop at the roadside grave of tragic Kitty Jay, and share the ghost stories that are attached to this melancholic spot. On the way back we cross the Cherrybrook Bridge, near Postbridge, where, over the years, the infamous Hairy Hands have caused many serious accidents, some of them fatal!

Maybe you fancy seeing the moors from south to north, starting at the atmospheric ruins of Buckfastleigh church, where can be found the tomb of the notorious Squire Cabal, who proved to be the inspiration for the classic novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Here you might also hear the sound of monks chanting or even catch sight of a figure in white flitting between the grave stones...

Image: Squire Cabal's tomb

Then it’s off across Holne Moor, passed the gully known as Hangman’s Pit, on our way to Princetown and the ghosts of the foreboding Dartmoor Prison. Heading north we catch sight of the home of Dartmoor’s very own wicked witch, Vixana, hopefully shrouded in a thick fog, usually of her own making...

Image: Vixen Tor

Once in the north we can climb the slopes of Brentor to the church, and admire the views that the Devil tried to deny the local parishioners...weirdly he seems to have had a thing for churches over the years! Finally, we reach Lydford, and visit the sturdy remains of its castle on the mound between church and haunted pub. The dungeons beneath the keep are somewhere you would want to avoid at all costs, back in the day, for many of its inmates never saw the light of day again, dying before even coming to trial! On the way back we could pop in the glorious Highwayman Inn, checking out its wacky decor, keeping an eye out for its cavalier guest! Even I’ve had an odd experience here...

Over the years, I’ve treated my family and friends to an entertaining night out on the moors at Halloween. We’ve all dressed up and visited various pubs, with me telling stories as we go. The weirdest experience we had was at the Warren House Inn, our last stop of the night. We were quite disappointed at the lack of decorations for the festival, considering we had all made the effort. As last orders sounded, we drank up and made our way out into the night...passing the bar behind which all the staff stood silently wearing creepy Halloween masks just for our benefit...fabulous!

What will you experience on your visit? Only one way to find out...BOOK NOW TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT!