Lustleigh Cleave
Valley in Devon, England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Lustleigh Cleave is a steep sided valley above the River Bovey[1] in the parish of Lustleigh on Dartmoor. The cleave has been noted for its beauty since the 1800s,[2][3] and features extensively in guidebooks.[4][5]
| Lustleigh Cleave | |
|---|---|
View onto Lustleigh Cleave | |
  Lustleigh Cleave Location in Devon | |
| Length | 2 miles (3.2 km) North West-South East |
| Geography | |
| Coordinates | 50.621°N 3.747°W |
| River | River Bovey |
Description
The Lustleigh Cleave is a steep-sided valley, approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) in length, with the River Bovey flowing at the bottom approximately South-Easterly.[6]
Nothing can spoil the Cleave, where the granite, piled up like giants' castles, crowns the gorge, and is spread all the way to the stream below.
— Cresswell, 1920[7]
The valley is scattered with granite clitter (rocks strewn across the landscape), including rocking logan stones.[8]
Notable features
The cleave contains Hunter's Tor, a granite tor, typical of Dartmoor, and location of an Iron Age settlement, and later Domesday Book settlement of Sutreworde.[9][10]
There is regeneration of temperate rainforest on the Lustleigh Cleave, following a reduction in grazing and swaling.[11][12][13][14]
