Dartmoor legends
Manaton
A two-part Dartmoor village of granite landmarks, church history and walks among the tors.
- Best for
- Moorland walking and local legends
- Give it
- Three hours for the Bowerman's Nose and Hound Tor circular
- Don't miss
- Bowerman's Nose above the village
The Fox verdict
A village shaped by tors and stories
Manaton brings together moorland walks, a rare church dedication and some of Dartmoor's best-known legends.
The upper village gathers around its green and St Winifred's Church, while the lower village has the Kestor Inn. Beyond them are Bowerman's Nose, Hound Tor, Jay's Grave and the Becka Brook valley.
Your picks, your pace
Make Manaton yours
Choose a mood or build your own list. Your saved stops are an ordering aid, with a direct map route when you are ready.
Local signatures
3 placesThe Kestor Inn
Manaton's village hub serves lunches and evening meals made with Devon's seasonal produce, plus a Sunday carvery, takeaway fish and chips and cream teas.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 90 minutes
- Locality
- in the lower village
St Winifred's Church
A 15th-century church with a painted and gilded Tudor rood screen whose saints were defaced under Edward VI's 1548 decree.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 45 minutes
- Locality
- on the north side of the village green
Jay's Grave
A moorland grave associated with Kitty Jay's late-18th-century legend and with the inspiration for John Galsworthy's short story The Apple Tree.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 45 minutes
- Locality
- near Manaton
Walks & outdoors
1 placeBowerman's Nose
A weathered granite pillar resembling a man in profile, with a cap, a long nose and a legend linking the hunter Bowerman to Hound Tor.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 45 minutes
- Locality
- directly above the village
History & heritage
2 placesHound Tor and Deserted Medieval Village
A tor with the foundations of an abandoned 13th- to early-14th-century hamlet between Hound Tor and Greator Rocks.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 90 minutes
- Locality
- under two miles away
Grimspound
A late Bronze Age settlement with the remains of 24 stone houses enclosed by a boundary wall.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 90 minutes
- Locality
- a short drive from Manaton
Things to do
1 placeBecky Falls Ancient Woodland Park
More than 50 acres of woodland and streams, with trails, family attractions and a waterfall where the Becka Brook drops about 70 feet through granite boulders.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 120 minutes
- Locality
- just outside Manaton
No places match this filter. Choose All places to reset the list.
On the map
Manaton at a glance
Tap a marker to jump to its guide card.
Three ways to explore Manaton
Signature outings
Bowerman in granite
Look for the profile, cap and long nose in the weathered pillar above Manaton, then follow the legend that links Bowerman and his hounds to the neighbouring tor.
Hound Tor's lost hamlet
Explore the stone farmstead foundations of the medieval hamlet abandoned between Hound Tor and Greator Rocks.
Woodland and falling water
Hear the Becka Brook drop about 70 feet through granite boulders in more than 50 acres of woodland and streams.
The village story
Manaton Village Guide
Granite legends, a two-part village and walking country in southeastern Dartmoor.
Granite Legends and Two Villages
Bowerman's Nose rises above the village: a weathered granite pillar that, if you squint, resolves into a man in profile, cap on his head, long nose protruding. The story is that Bowerman was a hunter who chased a hare through a coven of witches, upset their cauldron, and got turned to stone. His hounds became the rocks on the next hill, which is why that one is called Hound Tor. Dartmoor explains its skyline this way.
Manaton is really two villages. The upper one gathers around a wide green ringed by thatched cottages, with St Winifred's Church on its north side. The lower one, down by the Kestor Inn, grew from the older hamlets of Water and Freelands. The whole place sits in the southeastern corner of the National Park, four miles south of Moretonhampstead, surrounded by tors and the Becka Brook valley. Locals called it "the 'ton."
The Kestor Inn and Village Supplies
The Kestor Inn is the pub, and the hub of village life. Refurbished in 2020, it does lunches and evening meals from Devon's seasonal produce, plus a Sunday carvery from midday with a choice of local meats or a vegetarian option. There's takeaway fish and chips and cream teas if you'd rather eat outside. Its own description calls it "a cosy, friendly pub in the heart of Dartmoor serving good hearty food," and there's a function room named, without ceremony, the Room with a View.
Beyond the pub, stock up before you arrive. There are no shops, no butcher, no farm shop in the parish — Manaton is scattered and small, and the nearest supplies are in Moretonhampstead or Bovey Tracey, both around four miles off.
St Winifred's and Moorland Walking
St Winifred's is a 15th-century church, and St Winifred herself a 7th-century Welsh princess and patron saint of virgins — only six churches in England are dedicated to her. Inside is a Tudor rood screen, painted and gilded around 1500 with saints including St Ursula and St Nicholas, every face on it deliberately defaced under Edward VI's 1548 decree against superstitious images. In 1779 lightning struck the tower and nearly split it in two. The churchyard cross had a stranger fate: a Victorian rector objected to the old custom of carrying a coffin three times around it before burial, and it was removed and destroyed.
The walking is the reason to come. A four-mile circular takes in Kitty Jay's Grave, a moorland burial always kept with fresh flowers by hands nobody has ever caught, reputedly a farmer's daughter who hanged herself in the late 18th century. That legend moved the novelist John Galsworthy, who stayed at Wingstone farmhouse from 1903 to 1923, to write his short story "The Apple Tree" here in 1916. Hound Tor, under two miles away, hides the foundations of a medieval hamlet abandoned six hundred years ago.
From Domesday to Becky Falls
The Domesday surveyors found three villagers here in 1086, along with 10 cattle, 30 sheep and 25 goats, and valued the whole place at ten shillings. Newton Abbot station is eight or nine miles by road, and in summer the Haytor Hoppa bus loops out to the village and back.
Becky Falls sits outside the village — fifty acres of ancient woodland where the Becka Brook drops seventy feet through granite boulders. You hear it before you see it, which is the point.
Stay around Dartmoor
Make a longer stay of it
Travel Fox holiday homes around Dartmoor, linked directly to their property pages.
A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- The Kestor Inn — thekestor.com operator, sector body or destination organisation record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- St Winifred's Church — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Bowerman's Nose — dartmoor.gov.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Hound Tor and Deserted Medieval Village — english-heritage.org.uk national body or asset manager
- Jay's Grave — dartmoor.gov.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Becky Falls Ancient Woodland Park — beckyfalls.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Grimspound — english-heritage.org.uk national body or asset manager