Pillow mound near Merrivale Bridge

This pillow mound is a low, rounded earthwork formed by medieval rabbit warrening on Dartmoor. Part of Merrivale Warren, it represents the managed exploitation of the moor's resources during the Middle Ages and later. Pillow mounds are deliberately constructed breeding grounds where rabbits were kept in semi-wild conditions, their value making them worth protecting and tending.

Today the mound sits in open moorland east of Merrivale Bridge, visible as a gentle rise in the terrain. It stands as evidence of how Dartmoor's high ground was actively used and shaped by people centuries ago, not wilderness but a working landscape where rabbits were as much a crop as the tin being worked elsewhere on the moor.

Historic England listed designation: Pillow mound 870m ENE of Merrivale Bridge, forming part of Merrivale Warren