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Three pillow mounds near Longaford Tor
Grid ref: SX 6151 7791
On walking routes: The Lichway
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.
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