Childe's Tomb

Childe's Tomb is a granite cross on Dartmoor, Devon, England. Although not in its original form, it is more elaborate than most of the crosses on Dartmoor, being raised upon a constructed base, and it is known that a kistvaen is underneath.

A well-known legend attached to the site, first recorded in 1630 by Tristram Risdon, concerns a wealthy hunter, Childe, who became lost in a snow storm and supposedly died there despite disembowelling his horse and climbing into its body for protection. The legend relates that Childe left a note of some sort saying that whoever found and buried his body would inherit his lands at . After a race between the monks of and the men of Plymstock, the Abbey won.

The tomb was virtually destroyed in 1812 by a man who stole most of the stones to build a house nearby, but it was partly reconstructed in 1890.

Childe's Tomb is a reconstructed granite cross on the south-east edge of Foxtor Mires, about 500 metres north of Fox Tor on Dartmoor, Devon, England at grid reference SX625704. According to William Burt, in his notes to Dartmoor, a Descriptive Poem by N. T. Carrington (1826), the original tomb consisted of a pedestal of three steps, the lowest of which was built of four stones each six feet long and twelve inches square. The two upper steps were made of eight shorter but similarly shaped stones, and on top was an octagonal block about three feet high with a cross fixed upon it.

The tomb lies on the line of several cairns that marked the east-west route of the ancient Monks' Path between Buckfast Abbey and and it was no doubt erected here as part of that route: it would have been particularly useful in this part of the moor with few landmarks where a traveller straying from the path could easily end up in Foxtor Mires.Tristram Risdon, writing in about 1630, said that Childe's Tomb was one of three remarkable things in the Forest of Dartmoor (the others being Crockern Tor and Wistman's Wood). Risdon also stated that the original tomb bore an inscription: "They fyrste that fyndes and bringes mee to my grave, The priorie of Plimstoke they shall have", but no sign of this has ever been found.

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