Haytor Tramway - The points Traditional Cache

Please note that the industrial archaeological landscape around Haytor is protected, with the tramway itself being a Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM). It is illegal to wilfully damage it in any way so please be respectful of this wonderful heritage asset.

This cache is situated in the wonderful area surrounding Haytor. This area has a range of archaeological remains spanning the Bronze/Iron Age (c.2000 - 54 AD) all the way up to the post medieval period. If you know where to look there are the prehistoric remains of enclosures, hut circles and walls used for land division. But what is almost impossible to miss is the post medieval industrial remains associated with the exploitation of granite, from a number of nearby quarries. As well as the quarries themselves, there are also the visible remains of spoil heaps, beehive huts and of course the incredible granite tramway.

This tramway was built in the 1820's by George Templar to carry the quarried granite off Dartmoor to the Ventiford Canal, on its way to Teignmouth. As well as being remarkably well surviving, probably largely due to the difficulties of reusing granite, unlike metal rains, it shows highly sophisticated levels of engineering. The tracks were carved out of the granite and once laid together they would have supported carts, pulled by horses. The system, which connected at least 5 quarries around Haytor, is intricate and as such requires a large number of points, to joint the different branch lines together. This cache is situated a short distance from one of the better surviving points. If you look at them, you can see how the carts wheels would have been directed along the correct track, although the actual mechanism is no longer survining.