Bowerman's Nose

Bowerman's Nose is a stack of weathered granite on Dartmoor, Devon, England. It is situated on the northern slopes of Hayne Down, about a mile from Hound Tor and close to the village of Manaton at gbmapping|SX742805. It is about ft to m|21.5 high and is the hard granite core of a former tor, standing above a 'clitter' of the blocks that have eroded and fallen from it.

Its height was exaggerated by writers in the 19th century and earlier, who also described it as an ancient object of veneration. A theory that its name was derived from the Celtic "vawr maen", the "great stone" was refuted by R. Hansford Worth who pointed out that the correct Celtic form would have been "maen vawr", so it could not have mutated into "Bowerman". A John Bowerman was buried at North Bovey in 1663 and the name also appears in a Dean Prior register of 1772, so it is possible that the name is of no great antiquity.

With a little imagination, it is possible to see the profile of a human face in the rocky outline.

Legend

Not only is it a spectacular rock formation, which appears on many local postcards and calendars, but it is also the subject of Dartmoor folklore.

According to local legend, a huntsman called Bowerman lived on the moor around one thousand years ago. When chasing a hare he and his pack of dogs unwittingly ran into a coven of witches, overturned their cauldron and disrupted their ceremony.

They decided to punish him, and the next time he was hunting, one of the witches turned herself into a hare, and led both Bowerman and his hounds into a mire. As a final punishment, she turned them to stone - the dogs can be seen as a jagged chain of rocks on top of Hound Tor, while the huntsman himself became the rock formation now known as Bowerman's Nose.

References

*cite book |title=High Dartmoor |author=Eric Hemery |publisher=Robert Hale |location=London |year=1983 |pages=729-730 |isbn=0-7091-8859-5
*cite web|url=http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/bowermans.htm|title=Bowerman's Nose|publisher=www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk|accessdate=2008-04-02 A slightly different version of the legend.