MSO11642 - Herepath or Harepath (Monument)

A trackway is visible as multiple re-cuts defined in part by the field banks of a post-medieval field system at Withiel Hill. It has been equated with the Anglo-Saxon "Hare Path". A minor excavation was undertaken in 1889 by F Sheperd.

A Saxon pathway now forming the parish boundary at Withiel Hill. A minor excavation was undertaken in 1889 by F. Sheperd. A compacted clay layer was encountered. [1] A pathway known as the `Hare Path' which is recorded as "an ancient road or trackway which ran from the neighbourhood of Bridgewater, passing above Treborough, along Brendon Hill into the heart of Exmoor. This road has been fairly traced until it ran into the lane called Hare Path which leads down into Bushel Bridge..." It may have crossed the Exe at Road Castle (not Exford), heading up the Exe to near Castle Farm, before crossing Exmoor and Bratton Down to Barnstaple and on to Bideford. A discussion of a suggested route is included in this source. NB. Anglos Saxon -`Here'- an army, a host. Here path - a road for an army; a road large enough to march soldiers upon. [2] The earthwork remains of a trackway with traces of multiple recuts which is defined in part by the field banks of a post-medieval field system, aligned east to west between SS 9889 3543 and 9960 3529. The trackway marks the line of the parish boundary between Treborough/Luxborough and Brompton Regis to the south. There are further traces of trackways to the southeast which may well link up with this track. [3-5] The trackway was seen as an earthwork on Withiel Hill and mapped from aerial photographs. [7,8] MMO936 may be a duplication of this record or may refer to a separate feature that is related to it. [9] The route of the Harepath is recorded in an article in the Exmoor Review. It is stated to be Exmoor's longest prehistoric trackway. From Ralegh's Cross, it led northwesterly to Heath Poult Cross, then Summerway Cross, Bushel Bridge and then to Stone Cross and Hill Head Cross. From here, it may have continued onwards to Birch Cleeve and Moles Chamber, or it may have swung northwards along the ridgeway above Exford to Pittcombe Head and down into Porlock Weir via Worthy Water. The winter route was suggested to run to Dunkery Gate and then on to Bendel's Barrows near Hillhead Cross. [10-12] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [13] Towards Bushel Bridge [SS 9158 3799] the road from Heath Poult Cross becomes the Hare Path, possibly a Saxon name and earthworks of old trackways cross north of Heath Poult Cross. Roads meandered for centuries across open ground, finding the best route and only becoming formalised in the 18th and 19th Centuries with the enclosure of the fields. [14] A section of road in Cutcombe follows the parish boundary with Exton to the south. It is named Hare Path, and runs between Hare Path Cross (SS 9175 3806) and Summerway Cross (SS 9303 3762). [15]