The Hanging Stone (Lee Moor)

• Grid reference: About SX 5837 6370 (sources differ by up to 30 m)
• Length: 7 ft 9 in (2.4 m)
• Vertical height: 6 ft 9 in (2.1 m), leaning about 38 degrees
• Inscription: C B, on one face
• Related stone: Recumbent B C stone about SX 5855 6350

The Hanging Stone on Lee Moor is a prehistoric standing stone that leans about 38 degrees from the vertical. It is 7 ft 9 in long, but because of the lean it stands only 6 ft 9 in high, with a base about 3 ft 7 in by 1 ft 10 in. It is one of very few menhirs left standing on Dartmoor.

At some point it was made a boundary stone, and it carries the incised letters C B. Dave Brewer suggests the C may stand for Cholwich or for clay, and that the stone may belong to the bounds of an early clay sett. Nearby is a recumbent stone lettered B C, and both were probably cut by the same hand.

The stone gives its name to a sheep-stealer story: a thief, carrying a stolen sheep with its legs tied, rests against a rock, the animal struggles and the rope tightens round his neck. Legendary Dartmoor lists the stone as such a site, but says none of the Dartmoor hanging stones was a gallows or gibbet. Other stones called hanging stones are unrelated; this is not the Hangingstone on Hangingstone Hill.