This eerie village was once a bustling settlement
The abandoned settlement was one a busy town(Image: Getty)
Perched atop a hillside in the back of the UK’s most beautiful areas are the ruins of a once thriving town. Tucked away inside Dartmoor National Park in Devon is the remains of the medieval settlement known as Hundatorra – a town which was once home to several households, and named in the Domesday Book.
Lying beneath the shadow of Hound Tor is the ancient ruins of this once bustling town. The whole settlement has an eerie feel to it – in fact, it’s thought that the area was created by the curse of a witch.
According to legend, the rock formations atop the Tor are the remains of a hunter and his dogs who ran foul of a coven of witches and were drowned in a mire as a result.
As a final insult, the witch turned the hunter and his dogs to stone – and they are what you can see looming over the ancient settlement of Hundatorra.
Historians think this land has been farmed since as early as the Neolithic Age – but by the 15th century the village was completely abandoned.
No one is exactly sure why this town, once bustling with agriculture and life, fell away – but according to Historic UK there are some theories.
The first is that during the 14th century, the weather across not only Britain but all of Europe deteriorated.
Extraordinarily cold winters, chased by cold, wet summers, meant that farming became very difficult. This led to what’s now known as the Great Famine of 1315 -1317. Smaller famines continued through the 14th century which led to the average life expectancy to plummet to just 29 years old.
Now, it’s thought that this devastating weather which led to such misery was actually caused by a volcanic eruption in New Zealand.
Around 1314, the eruption of Mount Tarawera is thought by some scientists to have sent aerosols into the stratosphere which in turn disrupted global atmospheric circulation and depressed surface temperatures, leading to unsettled weather.
The second theory as to why Hundatorra was abandoned is that famine was not the only threat to life medieval Brits had to deal with. In 1348, the Black Death touched down on English soil and by its end, a third of Devon had been wiped out.
During the Black Death, the average life expectancy was just 17.
Now, the ruins of the town still stand atop the hillside as a reminder of those who came before.
The remains of four 13th century longhouses where Medieval Brits lived alongside their livestock, three barns , and three other unidentifiable buildings can still be seen. The barns appear to have been adapted to include corn dryers – a sign of the desperation to harvest despite deteriorating weather.
