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Folklore & Legends

Cutty Dyer

Cutty Dyer is an evil sprite who lives at King's Bridge in Ashburton. He was rumoured to accost drunks and throw them into the river, or at worst slit their throats, drink their blood and then throw them into the river. This tale was also told to children as a warning not to stay out after dark.

Fitz's Well

Dartmoor has a couple of holy wells and Fitz's Well can be found near both Okehampton and Princetown and a similar tale is told about both.

John Fitzford and his lady were lost on Dartmoor when the mist came down. The tale tells that they were 'pixie-led' and turning their coats inside out broke this mischievous spell. When the fog cleared they found themselves at a spring, which they gratefully drank from. In gratitude they built a simple well house around it which is engraved 'I.F. 1568' and can be found near Princetown.

The Okehampton well is known for its eye cures and was visited on Easter morning by youths and maidens.

Dartmoor's Mires

Dartmoor has a few bogs and mires, which walkers should give due care and attention to. There is a local tale of a young man walking past a mire and seeing a hat on the ground. Picking up the hat he was surprised to find a man's head underneath it. He readily offered to assist the gentleman out of his difficulties, only to hear the reply that the gentleman also needed the horse that he was sitting on rescued as well.

Branscombe's Loaf and Cheese

Branscombe's Loaf is a lonely tor on Corn Ridge, which has its origins in a devilish tale. In the thirteenth century the Bishop of Exeter, a Walter Branscombe, had been visiting some outlying parishes and was returning to Exeter along the north eastern edge of Dartmoor. It had been a long day and the Bishop and his servant were feeling very hungry, when out of the blue a man appeared and offered him some bread and cheese. The bishop was about to eat these, when his servant, spotting a cloven hoof beneath the strangers' coat, knocked them out of his hands. The bread and cheese became the outcrops of rocks that can be seen today and the bishop and his servant went on their way, none the worse for their ordeal, although still hungry.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was said to have been inspired to write the Sherlock Holmes novel Hound of the Baskervilles from tales he heard about Dartmoor while staying at the Duchy Hotel in Princetown, which is now the High Moorland Visitor Centre.

Squire Cabell had an evil reputation and legend says that when he died in the late seventeenth century, a pack of black hounds ran howling across Dartmoor. Cabell is buried in Buckfastleigh and his coffin was entombed in a small building to stop him from riding out with his hounds.

Childe's Tomb

The site of Childe's Tomb is a stone cross on the moor, which marks the site of this tragedy. Childe was the Lord of the Manor of Plymstock and got caught in a blizzard on Dartmoor. Lost and exhausted he killed his horse and climbed inside it to keep warm. Unfortunately this didn¹t work and Childe froze to death, but managed to write his will on a nearby granite stone in blood before he died. It said that whoever found his body and buried him would inherit his estate. The monks of Tavistock Abbey recovered his body and claimed the land.

The Dewerstone

The Dewerstone is a large granite outcrop over 100 metres high and its name derives from 'Old Dewer', the local term for the Devil. The legends say that he used to terrorise the moor at night with his pack of Wisht Hounds (from Wistmans Wood) and drive poor travellers to their deaths off the top of the Dewerstone.

Ghostly Legions

During a full moon Roman legionnaires have been spotted at the old Roman hill fort on Hunters Tor above Lustleigh Cleave. There have also been tales of a Tudor hunting party being seen in this area too.