Bowerman's Nose

Bowerman's Nose is a large stack of weathered granite on Dartmoor, in the United Kingdom. It is situated on the northern slopes of Hayne Down, about a mile from Hound Tor and close to the village of Manaton. Not only is it a spectacular rock formation, which appears on many local postcards and calendars, but 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. With a little imagination, it is possible to see something resembling a human face in the rocky outline.