South Tawton

South Tawton lies below Cosdon Hill on the northern edge of the moor, a quiet village around a green with a church that is far grander than the size of the place would suggest. St Andrew's is built of the local granite and speaks of a parish that was once wealthy and populous, and beside it stands the church house, a fifteenth century building where the parish brewed its ale and held its feasts, and one of the best preserved of its kind anywhere in Devon.

The village is often overlooked in favour of neighbouring South Zeal, which sits on the main road, but it is the older settlement and repays a visit. Above it Cosdon Hill rises in a long steady sweep onto the northern moor, its summit crowned with cairns and its slopes carrying stone rows and burial monuments. The paths from the village lead quickly onto open ground and into some of the least frequented country on Dartmoor.