Devil's Bridge

• Where: the B3212 over the River Meavy, just over a kilometre south-west of Princetown, SX 58050 72880
• What: a small stone culvert carrying the road over the young Meavy
• Status: not listed or scheduled as a bridge; Bronze Age monuments around it are scheduled

Devil's Bridge carries the B3212 over the River Meavy a short way below its source. It is hardly recognisable as a bridge now: the stream runs in a narrow channel to a small stone culvert under the road embankment. The name is said to have come from workmen in the area, probably because of the severe S-bend the road once took here. The bend was straightened in the 1960s, and a map of 1906 shows the old route. No date for the bridge or builder has been found.

The ground either side is a well-recorded Bronze Age settlement landscape on Walkhampton Common. A large unenclosed settlement of 36 hut circles lies between the bridge and Hart Tor, and in 1895 the Dartmoor Exploration Committee dug 18 of the huts: Hut circles between Hart Tor and Devil's Bridge. Two smaller settlements 380 m to 400 m south-west of the bridge and one 900 m west are on the page Hut circle settlements west and south-west of Devil's Bridge, and a Bronze Age ring cairn lies 220 m south-south-east: Ring cairn near Devil's Bridge.

The same slopes were used by the army: three granite distance markers from a 19th century rifle range stand inside the scheduled settlement. About a kilometre south, the valley holds the remains of tin working, described on Tinworks at Stanlake, Black Tor, Hart Tor and Cramber Tor.