Skip to content

← Back to the directory · Dartmoor Map

Antiquities

Three pillow mounds adjacent to Longaford Tor forming an outlying part of a rabbit warren on the western slopes of Longaford and Littaford Tors

Devon

These three pillow mounds are part of a rabbit warren that once stretched across the western slopes of Longaford and Littaford Tors. Pillow mounds, also called pillows or lynch pins, are artificial earthworks created to provide warrens, or managed colonies, of rabbits. Rabbits were a valuable resource on Dartmoor in medieval times, offering meat and fur, and were carefully husbanded by those with the rights to do so.

Today the mounds remain as gentle grass-covered ridges in the landscape, easily overlooked but rewarding to spot on a walk across these high slopes. They stand as evidence of how the medieval moorland was actively managed and exploited, quite different from the wild open country it appears today. The warren here was one of many that once dotted Dartmoor.

Explore further

Recommended online resources for heritage sites on Dartmoor:

Photo: Derek Harper (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Kind words

Be the first to leave kind words for Three pillow mounds adjacent to Longaford Tor forming an outlying part of a rabbit warren on the western slopes of Longaford and Littaford Tors.

Leave kind words

Run a Dartmoor business, group or service like this one? Add yours to the directory, it is free.

Suggest a listing