Heathercombe, Manaton, Dartmoor National Park

Heathercombe, Manaton, Dartmoor National Park

Heathercombe is known for its gardens which are open to the general public on select days through the year. See Heathercombe's website for further information. We provide an external link.

A section of the Two Moors Way and the Mariners' Way pass through Heathercombe. Another path climbs through the woods to Heathercombe Brake on the edge of Dartmoor's high moorland. The path passes King Tor and leads to English Heritage's Grimspound below Hookney Tor and Hameldown Tor.

A local information board provides general information on Heathercombe:

'Heathercombe itself has been occupied since at least the late Bronze Age, about 3,000 years ago. North and South Heathercombe are typical Dartmoor longhouses built in the late 15th or early 16th Centuries - a relatively prosperous time when farming was probably supplemented by tin streaming in the Heathercombe Barn.

At the end of the 19th Century Heathercombe was incorporated into the Heatree Estate of John Kitson of Torquay. Much of the extensive amenity and forest planting carried out by him was however felled in the 1940's during or shortly after the war.

Since the early 1950's the woodlands have been progressively re-planted, fencing erected and forest rides laid out; walks and ponds have been restored and much amenity planting of trees and shrubs undertaken.

The story of Heathercombe is recounted in the Westcountry Books publication "Heathercombe: The History of a Dartmoor Valley" by Claude Pike.