Dewerstone Settlement

Nearest town:
Plympton (7km SSE)
OS reference:
SX539641
OS sheet:
201
Latitude:
50° 27' 28.37 N
Longitude:
4° 3' 30.56 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Dewerstone Settlement by Lubin

Part of the wall, possibly an entrance, of the hill fort on the Dewerstone.

Image credit: Peter Castle ©
Lubin
Lubin Jan 22, 2006
Image of Dewerstone Settlement by Lubin

Part of the wall of the enclosure/settlement on the Dewerstone. This is inside the wall of the hill fort.

Image credit: Peter Castle ©
Lubin
Lubin Jan 22, 2006
Image of Dewerstone Settlement by Lubin

Part of the wall of the enclosure on the Dewerstone.

Image credit: Peter Castle ©
Lubin
Lubin Jan 22, 2006
Image of Dewerstone Settlement by pure joy

Dewerstone Settlement – 21.6.2004 – presumably part of the enclosure wall

Image credit: Martin Bull
pure joy
pure joy Jul 4, 2004

Articles

Dewerstone Settlement

pure joy
pure joy Jul 4, 2004

Dewerstone Settlement – 21.6.2004

I knew nothing about this site except for what I could see on the map, which showed a semi circular earthwork on top of the hill, and a homestead within the enclosed area.

The whole area is National Trust land so it is open access. The settlement can be approached over Wigford Down (a much flatter route), or from the river valley below. Many walkers in the area park at Shaugh Bridge. Or Cadover Bridge, but this is further away. There is no vehicular access into the actual National Trust land (e.g. from Goodameavy).

There isn’t much to see though, especially with the dense bracken. The paths are cleared of bracken but not the rest of the hill top. Presumably the semi circular earthwork would have cut the hill off from the rest of the downs.

The views from the nearby Dewerstone Rocks are stunning. But please treat the rocks below with care; two rock climbers died on them last year.

Folklore

Dewerstone Settlement
Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Oct 4, 2006

Well this is really ghastly, I’m afraid.

..an account [of this] appeared in a Devonshire newspaper one day last spring, on the Dartmoor, where the foaming river Plym rushes through a ravine under the tall cliffs of the Dewerstone. This wild spot is haunted by the Black Huntsman, who with his “Wish-hounds” careers over the waste at night. A story is told of this phantom that a farmer, riding across the moor by night, encountered the Black Hunter, and being flushed with ale, shouted to him “Give us a share of your game!” The Huntsman thereupon threw him something that he supposed might be a fawn, which he caught and carried in his arms till he reached his home, one of the old moorland farms. There arrived, he shouted, and a man came out with a lantern. “Bad news, master,” said the man; “you’ve had a loss since you went out this morning.” “But I have gained something,” answered the farmer, and getting down brought what he had carried to the lantern, and beheld---his own dead child! During the day his only little one had died.

Folklore Parallels and Coincidences
M. J. Walhouse
Folklore, Vol. 8, No. 3. (Sep., 1897), pp. 196-202.

Folklore

Dewerstone Settlement
Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 27, 2005

Not that I want to put you off visiting Dewerstone, but Hunt* mentions that the Dewerstone valley below is a favourite midnight meeting place for the headless spectral Wish Hounds. He calls them “the wish or wisked hounds of Dartmoor,” also the “yell-hounds,” and the “yeth-hounds.”

Pure Joy mentions that rock climbers have died here – perhaps many people have made fatal errors over the years, because it is said the hounds lure unwary (or inquisitive) travellers over the edge to their deaths.

*Popular Romances of the West of England, 1865.

(Btw, the Magic record considers the enclosures themselves to be Neolithic, with the hut circles later Bronze Age additions.)

Sites within 20km of Dewerstone Settlement

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