Cosdon Hill, also called Cosdon Beacon, or Cawsand Beacon, is one of the highest hills on
Dartmoor
Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers .
The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous ...
, in
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
, England.
It has numerous traces of prehistoric occupation.
Description
Cosdon is a large, rounded hill that rises to . The first written record of the hill is to the ''Hoga de Cossdonne'' in 1240. The name Cossdonne seems to mean "Cost(a)'s hill", where "Cost" or "Costa" is the name of a person.
The shape of the hill gives a false impression of size, and for many years Cosdon was thought to be the highest on Dartmoor.
The surveyors of the
Principal Triangulation of Great Britain
The Principal Triangulation of Britain was the first high-precision triangulation survey of the whole of Great Britain (including Ireland), carried out between 1791 and 1853 under the auspices of the Board of Ordnance. The aim of the survey was ...
took bearings that resulted in the first
Ordnance Survey
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map of Dartmoor in 1809, which showed that
Yes Tor
Yes Tor is the second highest point on Dartmoor, Devon, South West England, at above sea level. It is one of only two wholly English peaks south of the Peak District National Park—the other being nearby High Willhays—that are above .
It l ...
was higher.
However, in 1830
Samuel Rowe still wrote that Cawson or Cosdon hill was the highest in Dartmoor.
An 1894 guide for cyclists going from
Exeter
Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...
to
Launceston said, "So vast is the bulk of Cosdon that, were is not for the cloud mists that so often drift round his brow, one would hardly at first sight credit his height of 1799 feet."
It was formerly thought to be the highest point at , but it was now known that the neighbouring
High Willhays
High Willhays ( , ), or according to some authorities High Willes, is the highest point on Dartmoor, Devon, at above sea level,Dartmoor National Park Authority, General Information: Dartmoor Factsheet', 2004, p. 1 and the highest point in S ...
was yet higher, at .
From the summit of Cosdon it is often possible to see the
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
from
Teignmouth
Teignmouth ( ) is a seaside town, fishing port and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is situated on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign, about 12 miles south of Exeter. The town had a population of 14,749 at the ...
to
Start Point, and on a clear day the
Bristol Channel
The Bristol Channel ( cy, Môr Hafren, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Seve ...
may be visible.
The hill provides an excellent view over Dartmoor.
As Thomas Clifton Paris wrote in 1865, "Far and wide stretch its desolate hills, the ancient haunt of wolves and wild deer, and barbarians as untamed ; a solitary wondrous region, everywhere darkened by morasses, but piled with fantastic rocks and glowing with innumerable tints."
History
![Cosdon Hill Stone Row - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Cosdon_Hill_Stone_Row_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1499182.jpg)
A
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
flint axe has been found at the western foot of the hill.
There were nine
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
settlements around the western edge of the hill and two associated reaves, or stone walls, that may have marked the boundaries between territories.
There are also many stone cairns,
kistvaen
A kistvaen or cistvaen is a tomb or burial chamber formed from flat stone slabs in a box-like shape. If set completely underground, it may be covered by a ''tumulus''. The word is derived from the Welsh ''cist'' (chest) and ''maen'' (stone). ...
s, stone rows and what may be a stone circle.
Some of these have been badly damaged by stones being removed later for other uses.
There is a very large cairn on the summit, which may well have been the site of a beacon.
An 1896 report described three parallel lines of stones, starting from a cairn surrounded by a circle, on the North Tawton Common on the east side of Cosdon.
The report noted that a wall was being built around a large slice of the common, and masons had been working for several years breaking up and removing stones for the wall.
There were signs that an inner circle was buried in the cairn.
Two kistvaens were found within the cairn.
One was intact but the coverer and two side stones had been taken from the other.
Dartmoor was called a forest in 1238.
It was granted by
Henry III of England
Henry III (1 October 1207 – 16 November 1272), also known as Henry of Winchester, was King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine from 1216 until his death in 1272. The son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême, Henry a ...
to his brother, Richard, Earl of Cornwall and Poictou, in 1248.
The extent of the
Forest of Dartmoor
The Forest of Dartmoor is an ancient royal forest covering part of Dartmoor, Devon, England.
A royal forest was an area reserved by the king for hunting, and William the Conqueror introduced the concept of forest law in England in the 11th ce ...
was verified by the solemn oath of twelve Perambulators.
The commissioners began their perambulation at Cosdon Hill in the north quarter of Dartmoor, then followed a circuit of the moor, returning to the starting point at Cosdon.
Samuel Rowe (1793–1853), Vicar of
Crediton
Crediton is a town and civil parish in the Mid Devon district of Devon in England. It stands on the A377 Exeter to Barnstaple road at the junction with the A3072 road to Tiverton, about north west of Exeter and around from the M5 motorway ...
, noted in 1848 that they started at a point near the foot of the hill called ''Hoga de Cosdowne'', and said this must have been near the banks of the
Taw
Taw, tav, or taf is the twenty-second and last letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Tāw , Hebrew Tav , Aramaic Taw , Syriac Taw ܬ, and Arabic ت Tāʼ (22nd in abjadi order, 3rd in modern order). In Arabic, it is also gives ri ...
close to
Sticklepath.
Arthur B. Prowse wrote in 1892 that the starting point must have simply been the summit of the hill.
In the 1840s an
adit
An adit (from Latin ''aditus'', entrance) is an entrance to an underground mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal, by which the mine can be entered, drained of water, ventilated, and minerals extracted at the lowest convenient level. Adits ...
was driven into the hill, and lodes of
mispickel and copper ore were found.
The shaft of the Ivy Tor Copper mine was sunk in 1851, and the mine continued to be worked for several years.
By 1867 Ivy Tor had been united with Copper Hill to form Belstone Consoles, on the
river Tavy
The Tavy () is a river on Dartmoor, Devon, England. The name derives from the Brythonic root "Tam", once thought to mean 'dark' but now generally understood to mean 'to flow'. It has given its name to the town of Tavistock and the villages o ...
.
The mispickel at Ivy Tor contained
bismuth
Bismuth is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Bi and atomic number 83. It is a post-transition metal and one of the pnictogens, with chemical properties resembling its lighter group 15 siblings arsenic and antimony. Elemental ...
.
Actinolite
Actinolite is an amphibole silicate mineral with the chemical formula .
Etymology
The name ''actinolite'' is derived from the Greek word ''aktis'' (), meaning "beam" or "ray", because of the mineral's fibrous nature.
Mineralogy
Actinolite is ...
and
feldspar
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldsp ...
were also found at Ivy Tor.
For some time the hill was a shooting moor for grouse and occasional deer.
Some granite shooting butts can still be seen on the north and east of the hill.
There is a trig point, Flush Bracket Number S5362, on the summit of the hill, from which a wide area of country can be viewed.
''On Cawsand Beacon''
Elias Tozer (1825–73) wrote,
Notes
Sources
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External links
{{authority control
Dartmoor
Hills of Devon