Princetown — Swincombe Deserted Village Loop

Start in Princetown. Head out towards South Hessary Tor. Continue to Whiteworks tin ruins. Contour around Foxtor Mire (stay on firm ground). Pass Childe's Tomb (optional spur). Join Abbots' Way at Nun's Cross. Descend into Swincombe Valley. Explore deserted village and clapper bridge. Follow leats and tracks north-west. Return via South Hessary to Princetown.

The Swincombe Valley contains one of Dartmoor's more evocative deserted medieval settlements — abandoned longhouses, enclosure walls and building platforms visible on the valley slopes above the river. The settlement was likely occupied from the medieval period and abandoned gradually as the climate deteriorated and the economy shifted.

Nun's Cross (also called Siward's Cross) is one of Dartmoor's finest ancient waymarkers — a tall granite cross standing on the Abbots' Way, the historic route used by monks travelling between Buckfast Abbey and Tavistock. It stands alone on open moorland and is mentioned in perambulation records from 1240.

Foxtor Mire is one of Dartmoor's most notorious bogs — a large, active mire in the headwaters of the West Dart. It has a strong claim to being the inspiration for the Great Grimpen Mire in Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'. It is genuinely dangerous and should never be crossed.

Whiteworks was a tin mining complex operating from the early 19th century, one of the later industrial workings on the moor. The remains — leats, spoil heaps and building foundations — are still clearly visible against the landscape.

Childe's Tomb, an optional detour, is a Bronze Age burial mound reused in the medieval period and associated with a well-known Dartmoor legend.