Three pillow mounds near Merrivale Bridge

These three pillow mounds are what remains of Merrivale Warren, a medieval landscape shaped by the deliberate farming of rabbits. Pillow mounds are low, elongated earthworks, typically arranged in groups, built to provide warrens with the drainage and habitat they needed. On Dartmoor's high ground, where rabbits were a valuable food source and their pelts prized, such warrens were carefully managed assets.

Today the mounds sit quietly among the rough grass and heather of the open moor, east of Merrivale Bridge. They are subtle features, easy to walk past, but they speak to how intensively Dartmoor was once used and organised. The warren itself is a scheduled monument, a reminder that the moor's character was shaped as much by medieval enterprise as by geology and weather.

Historic England listed designation: Three pillow mounds 720m ENE of Merrivale Bridge, forming part of Merrivale Warren