Lustleigh Cleave

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 / 50.621; -3.747
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]}