Dartmeet

Dartmeet is in central Dartmoor, about four and a half miles east of Two Bridges, where the East Dart and West Dart meet to form the River Dart. The 1240 Perambulation of the Forest of Dartmoor used it as a boundary point, and the name first appears in writing in a Duchy of Cornwall document of 1616.

There are two crossings. The road bridge over the East Dart was built in 1792. Close by is a clapper bridge with five spans of unmortared boulder piers. It is listed Grade II (1955) and is dated to the 17th century or earlier, though clapper bridges are hard to date. Three of its spans lost their slabs in the flood of 4 August 1826, reported in the Exeter Flying Post, and the two spans nearest the banks still have theirs. It was used by packhorses carrying tin off the moor.

Halfway up Dartmeet Hill is the Coffin Stone, where bearers rested on the way to burials at Widecombe-in-the-Moor. Visitors have carved initials and crosses on it. A local tale says a wicked man's coffin was left on it and the stone was split by a thunderbolt. The surrounding ground has a prehistoric field system marked by reaves, described as among the best preserved in north west Europe. In summer people paddle in the shallows, and the spot is the official put in for canoeists and kayakers on the Upper Dart.