Skip to content

← Browse Hillforts & Earthworks · Browse the directory

Hillforts & Earthworks

Deserted medieval site near Okehampton camp

Grid ref: SX 5769 9275

On walking routes: West Devon Way

This scheduled monument preserves the landscape traces of a medieval community that once occupied this exposed location on Dartmoor. The site consists of earthwork features, likely including house platforms and field boundaries, typical of the dispersed settlements that existed across the moor during the medieval period before many were abandoned as climate and farming practices changed.

Today the site is subtle and requires patience to read. It sits within the moorland landscape west of Okehampton, part of the wider story of human settlement and retreat that marks Dartmoor's history. The remains offer little obvious drama but reward those interested in how people lived and why some communities were left behind.

Share

Contact us if you have information about this listing

Go deeper with Dartefacts

Dartefacts is a database of Dartmoor sites with far more close-up detail than we can show here, and it is the best place to go deeper. Dartefacts is free to use, and nobody has to pay to look things up. If you want more, a yearly subscription adds 10-figure grid references, map zoom down to 1:25,000 and lists to tick off the places you have visited, and it helps keep the site going. We would encourage you to subscribe.

Thoughts

Be the first to share a thought about Deserted medieval site near Okehampton camp.

Share a thought

“In the afternoon, in service time, there happened a very great darkness... a ball of fire came in likewise at the window, and passed through the church... There were in all four persons killed, and sixty-two hurt...”

Also on Our DartmoorUS Navy Liberator crash site, West Okement Valley — Where US Navy Liberator 63926 hit the ridge above the West Okement valley in cloud on 28 December 1943, killing all ten crew. Debris runs from the ridge top down towards the river.

Know another Dartmoor place, tor or landmark we should include? Suggest a listing, it is free.

Suggest a listing