Holy Trinity Church, Buckfastleigh

• Status: Roofless since an arson fire in 1992; the churchyard is still used for burials
• The tomb: Cabell chest tomb, Grade II* (Historic England list entry 1292829)

Holy Trinity, the medieval parish church of Buckfastleigh, stands on the hill above the town. It was burnt out in an arson attack in 1992 and has been roofless since, so the whole church is the ruin and not just a part of it. Worship moved after the fire to St Luke's in the middle of the town. The churchyard is still used for burials and the site is open to visitors, who are asked not to go into the ruin because stones on the wall tops are loose.

The Cabell tomb stands just south of the porch: a freestone chest tomb inside a small locked building with an iron grille, known locally as the Sepulchre. Historic England dates it to about 1656 and records it as commemorating Richard and Susanna Cabell (died 1612 and 1597) and their son Richard (died 1655). Local tradition, as told by Sabine Baring-Gould, says it holds the wicked Richard Cabell of Brook Manor, said to have died in 1677, shut under a heavy stone and a grated house so that he could not come back to haunt the moor. The story is supposed to have inspired Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles. Susan Cabell Djabri has written a monograph arguing that the myth does not stand up.

There are two other Holy Trinity churches on the moor, at Drewsteignton and Gidleigh; both are working parish churches.

This is a location on Dartmoor that has a namesake. Read more about this: Dartmoor Places With the Same Name