TORS OF DARTMOOR
a database of both lesser- & well-known rocks and outcrops
William Donaghy Memorial In previous years, the heavily gorse bushed slopes above the left bank of the East Dart made finding this significant stone somewhat of an achievement, but at the current time of writing in 2020 controlled burning of the moorland, known as swaling, has made it much more accessible from either the track below or the ridge above. This is a memorial engraved with small lead lettering on a panel cut into the west face of a large rounded boulder. It has a fascinating and mysterious tale attached.  In November 1913, William Donaghy, a teacher, left his school in Warrington, and went missing. Three months later, a farmer discovered his body beside the stone beneath Hartland Tor. He had died of exposure due to the extreme cold the area had experienced. Upon his persons, they found a guidebook (suggesting he was doing a traverse of the moor), twenty pounds in gold coins, and a cloakroom ticket from an Exeter railway station. When police redeemed the ticket, they found a revolver and ammunition amongst his belongings. There has never been an explanation as to why he left home.  In 'Bodies on the Moor' by Trevor James (2004), the author offers up a credible connection between this tragedy and two subsequent deaths twenty years later. When the body of Walton Howard was found near Rowter Marsh (little more than 2 kilometres to the west) in 1934, it was found that he had also been a teacher at the same school in Warrington. Sometime later, the body of a man called George Miller was found at the foot of the cliffs at Beachy Head, in Sussex and he too had a connection with the Warrington school. A bizarre coincidence one may think but there were similarities in the circumstances of all three that are well worth reading further. It's a macabre Dartmoor mystery that will forever remain unsolved.  The memorial stone and inscription can be found on the north-west slopes of Hartland Tor, necessitating a descent towards the river, and then walking about 70 paces southward from a holly tree.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
