Gidleigh Manor Pound

Gidleigh Manor Pound is a practical relic of moorland farming, a circular stone enclosure designed to hold wandering cattle and sheep. Built centuries ago when Dartmoor's commons were vital grazing land, the pound served as a holding pen until owners could retrieve their animals or pay a fine—a system that kept the moor's economy functioning across generations.

Today it stands quietly on the moor, a reminder of how people once managed this landscape through careful customary law. The pound's weathered stones speak to the long relationship between farming families and the open moorland, a relationship that shaped both the land and its communities.