South Zeal

The Stone Inside the Inn

There is a 27-foot granite standing stone inside the Oxenham Arms, roughly 17 tons of it, raised by Neolithic people more than 5,000 years ago and never moved since. In the 12th century a group of Benedictine monks built their monastery around it rather than shift it, and the pub has been wrapped around the stone ever since. Three of the guest rooms — Belstone, Bovey, Widecombe — were the monks' cells.

It became an inn in 1477, when John Oxenham took a lease and a licence from the Exeter Justices, and it has been serving drinks from noon most days since. The bar food runs to things like ham hock, pea and parsley terrine; the separate AA-Rosette restaurant does venison with heritage carrots and beets. The house beers are Oxy Ale and Merry Monk, with a couple of rotating guests usually from local breweries. Dogs are welcome in the bar. The list of people said to have stayed here over the centuries includes Charles Dickens, Sir Francis Drake, Lord Nelson, and, more recently, the Rolling Stones and David Bowie.

A Medieval Street and Its Village Pub

The village is one long street of granite cottages set on narrow medieval burgage plots, running below the great dome of Cosdon Hill. The plots have barely changed since the place was laid out as a planned market town in the 13th century, which makes it one of the best-preserved examples of the pattern in the country.

The other pub is the Kings Arms, a thatched local said to be over 500 years old, run by Woody and Carolyn. The seasonal menu covers traditional pub favourites and a specials board, the homemade pizzas get singled out, and the cider is farmed less than 20 miles away. It's closed Tuesdays. One Tripadvisor reviewer called it "Best pub for miles." The landlady runs quizzes and live music, and the pub takes a central role during the Dartmoor Folk Festival each August.

Music, Recreation and St Mary's

That festival was founded in 1978 by a local musician, Bob Cann, to keep Dartmoor's musical traditions going, and it has been held on the village recreation ground every August since 1981. The recreation ground otherwise has a children's play park and a skate park.

St Mary's Chapel sits on an island in the middle of the street. It is coursed granite under a slate roof with a bellcote, 15th-century in origin, and in its garden stands a 14th-century granite cross about 18 feet high, reckoned one of the finest in Devon. It is not the parish church — that is St Andrew's, over in South Tawton — but a chapel of ease, now used for pilgrimage on the Archangel's Way.

Walks and Connections

For walking, Cosdon Beacon climbs directly from the village for wide views over the north moor, and the Tarka Trail follows the River Taw through Belstone Cleave at the eastern edge of the village. Okehampton station is about four miles off, on the line to Exeter, and the A30 runs just to the north.

Sticklepath and Village Essentials

A few minutes' walk down the road is Sticklepath and Finch Foundry, a water-powered edge-tool forge that still works. There is a bakery, a village shop with a post office, and a garage. Everything you need is on the one street.