A collection of walks, discoveries, insights and pictures of exploring Dartmoor National Park
May 11, 2025
Grandpa’s Grave
A Cairn Circle with Cist a few metres below (east of) Devonport Leat overlooking Fox Tor Mire is known as Grandpa’s Grave according to a reference in Mike Brown’s Dartmoor Field Guide – Volume 12. Mike Brown doesn’t provide a reason for this name and the author would be grateful to anyone reading this post to pass on any additional information relating to this.
The antiquity is located around 80m south of a wall which abuts perpendicularly to Devonport Leat at a location known locally as Sunny Corner. The author was first shown this antiquity circa 1990 whilst on a night walk with the Workers Education Association (WEA) with the guide Ted Birkett Dixon and has always looked out for it when passing ever since.
The four side stones of the cist remain, and about half a dozen stones of the circle are visible. It is in a good state of preservation, albeit it has been partially mutilated by Devonport Leat on its western edge.
Bibliography
Mike Brown – Dartmoor Field Guide- Volume 12 – Upper Newleycombe Valley – Southern Edge Walkhampton Commons (page 15)
Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England, 1987-1993, Duchy Farms Project Survey Visit, S. Probert (Report – Survey). SDV350839.
Jeremy Butler 1993, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Four – The South-East, 222, Map 64, Figure 64.4 (Monograph). SDV337765.
Location of Grandpa’s Grave and nearby artefacts of interest covered in this postGranpa’s Grave – Probert (Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England) recorded in 1988 that: “the cairn is 7.6m W-E by 7.0m N-S and 0.6m high”. He further states: “The cist, orientated roughly ENE-WSW is slightly to the N of centre of the cairn and is formed by four upright granite slabs”. The cist is very overgrown and the upright stones are discernible but barely.There is no obvious cover stone in the region of the cairn / cist. It is located at SX60770 70480Jeremy Butler in his Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquites (South East – Map 64) annotates this antiquity as ‘Foxtor Mires W. cairn’. Interestingly, he states that : “One of the overgrown slabs alongside the cist was probably the cover and the edges of others showing through the surface seem to be arranged in an inner ring around it”.Probert’s records add the following : “At the surface it (cist) measures 0.8m by 0.6m, with the component slabs tapering outwards, beneath ground, to give a bottom measurement of 1.0m by 0.7m at a depth of 0.7m”. Sunny Corner looking east towards WhiteworksSheep Leap – The author is aware of at least four other Sheep Leaps across Devonport Leat, namely; two at Bachelor’s Hall Tin Mine, one at Peat Cot and one below Beardown Tors. The Sheep Leap is located at SX60694 70605Just below Devonport Leat (but out if sight of the path) are the remains of two (probable Medieval) buildings. The photograph show the West (upper) building which measures 8 E-W by 4.4m N-S internally. The centre of the upper (western) building is at SX60799 70626.The second (lower) building is around 20m to the east from the first (upper) building. Neither of the two buildings is depicted on a Duchy map of 1818 or on the Tithe Map of 1839. The lower building measures around 5.3m E-W by 3.3m N-S (ref: RCHME). This is the internal measurement and doesn’t include the possible stock pen to the east. With walls 0.8m wide and up to 0.6m high, the centre of the lower building is located at SX60821 70630
