Cosdon Beacon

A Neolithic flint axe has been found at the western foot of the hill. There were nine Bronze Age 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, kistvaens, 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…

Cosdon is a large, rounded hill that rises to 550 m. 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 took bearings that resulted in the first Ordnance Survey map of Dartmoor in 1809, which showed that Yes Tor 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 to Launceston said, "So…