Moors and More Tours: Ghost tales and Dartmoor mysteries

Broad daylight on a Monday in Bovey Tracey seemed liked a reasonable time and place to meet David Phillips.

The actor-turned-tour guide had kindly offered to take me on a ghost walk through the Dartmoor town and, you know, it was better to do it on a weekday morning because evenings are busy, what with the kids and work etc. It definitely wasn’t because ghosts are scarier in the dark.

‘I don’t get scared,’ says David, a lifelong paranormal fan. ‘They (ghosts) can’t hurt you and they’re not around all the time, plus the only reason they are around is because they want to be heard or get a message to their loved ones.’

David Phillips at Brentor Church on Dartmoor (Image: Sarah Burden Media) David, dressed in his distinctive black, steampunk-style outfit, has been leading his spooky-themed trips across Dartmoor and beyond for three years. He recently added walking tours to his repertoire.

Participants are given a glimpse into the past lives of the people who lived, worked and died in our local towns and villages, as well as an insight into the mysterious myths and legends that have become intertwined with history.

Highlights include the legend surrounding Jan Reynolds, a Dartmoor landowner and gambler who made a pact with the Devil to have seven years good luck in return for his soul. 

Kitty Jay's grave near Manaton. (Image: David Phillips) Another point of interest is Jay’s Grave at Manaton. Kitty Jay is said to have been a young unmarried housemaid who was betrayed by her lover. In desperation she hanged herself in the outbuilding of a nearby farm in the late 18th century. There’s also the story of the Hairy Hands, thought to be responsible for several unexplained accidents on the road near Postbridge.

‘I love Dartmoor and Devon and I had all of this knowledge in my head that I wanted to share with people,’ says David, bringing us back into Bovey and the real world (I think).

We’re well into our walk now and stood in the graveyard of St John the Evangelist Church in Newton Road.

David stands beside the memorial dedicated to the three Gurney sisters in Bovey Tracey. (Image: Chrissy Harris) ‘This is an interesting one,’ says David, pointing to a prominent memorial with three angelic figures, dedicated to the three Gurney sisters, Emily, Rosamund and Mary. They tragically drowned when their boat capsized on the River Nile in 1875 during a storm.

Family member the Reverend Frederick Gurney, who had recently taken over the parish of Bovey Tracey at that time, commissioned their memorial to be erected in his churchyard.

‘The Gurney sisters also had a brother called Edmund who survived the accident,’ continues David, adding that Edmund spent his life consulting with clairvoyants to try to contact his dead sisters. After his death from an overdose of chloroform, he has frequently come through to certain mediums, apparently.

Take a tour with paranormal fan David Phillips. (Image: Harris Hounds) After a quick look at some other gravestones, we head into the church building where we’re greeted by the reassuringly familiar whirr of a Henry Hoover. Its user looks at us like she’s seen a ghost.

‘I’m so sorry!’ says the cleaner, abruptly stopping her vacuuming. ‘I didn’t hear you come in!’

David explains why we’re here and mentions that he’d eventually like to bring some of his walking tour guests inside the (beautiful) building as part of his Bovey Tracey route. He’s given contact details for Father Matthew at the church.

‘This sort of thing keeps happening to me lately,’ says David, as we step outside. ‘I keep going to places and meeting the right people at the right time.’

David has definitely found his calling. After training as an actor in London and landing bit parts in TV series including the BBC’s Casualty and House of Elliot, he moved to Devon in 1987. David then worked in the box office at Torquay’s Princess Theatre before setting up his tour business in 2021 as a way of combining the things he loved – people, Devon and the paranormal.

David has long been fascinated with Berry Pomeroy Castle. (Image: David Phillips) ‘I’ve just always been interested in unusual stuff,’ says David. ‘As kids, we were taken on family holidays to Wales or Dorset and Devon. I would buy a local ghost book and then take Dad’s road atlas and mark on the maps all the haunted locations in the area. I’d say, right, these are the places we are going to over the next two weeks.’

One of those must-visits was Berry Pomeroy Castle, near Totnes. The ruins of the mansion are said to be one of the most haunted locations in the UK.

‘I thought it was beautiful,’ says David, who was later inspired to set up a group for like-minded enthusiasts. In 1995, he founded Torbay Investigators of the Paranormal (TIP) with two friends, Dave and Adrian. Members attend regular meetings – usually in a suitably haunted pub - to swap tales of ‘spooky stuff’.

David telling ghost stories at the East Dart Inn, Postbridge (Image: Sarah Burden Media) Topics of conversation have included some of David’s unexplained experiences in Devon. For instance, there was the time he saw an apparition of a dead dog in a farmhouse at Sorley Tunnel near Kingsbridge and, more recently, a fluttering fairy in Wistman’s Wood on Dartmoor.

David is pretty sure he’s encountered many other-worldly happenings during his work and extensive research.

‘There are two types of paranormal activity, basically,’ says David. ‘There’s something called stone taping, a recording of past events, like someone walking up and down the stairs in a building or images of people. Then there is direct communication with spirits.’

The Challabrook Cross, a heavily eroded granite memorial once used to mark the grave of a Royalist officer killed in 1645 during the battle of Bovey Heath (Image: Chrissy Harris) We’ve just arrived at the Challabrook Cross, a heavily eroded granite memorial once used to mark the grave of a Royalist officer killed in 1645 during the battle of Bovey Heath. The cross and information board are now in the middle of a new housing estate that’s still under construction, but I can just about hear David explain the backstory above the noise of the diggers. It’s more interesting than spooky – the main take-home message today. Because whether you believe in ghosts or not, it’s certainly true that there have been some fascinating lives lived here in Bovey and all over Devon. ‘I’ve come across many sceptics, of course I have,’ says David, as we wander back to the car park. ‘Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. There are people who say ‘you shouldn’t dabble’ or else they’re scared. But have you ever experienced something that you can’t explain?

‘That’s why I do what I do. I’m putting forward the argument that there is such a thing because there are so many stories out there.’

If you feel brave enough to find out more, David will be running special Halloween tours throughout October. Visit Dartmoor Ghost Walks with the Storyteller on Facebook or contact David via his website, moorstoursdartmoor.co.uk