According to Christian tradition, suicide is a sin, and people who take their life may not be buried inside the churchyard. There are several spots, not only in Dartmoor, which are haunted by the ghosts of people who killed themselves and had to be buried in shallow graves, far away from the villages.

Hangman’s Pit is named after a local farmer who hanged himself after he lost all his money because someone cheated him in a horse trade. His wife later claimed that she saw him approaching the house, at about the same time when he must have killed himself.

His ghost still haunts the area. Some people claim to have seen him galloping down to the pit and resting there, in deep contemplation, and then continuing uphill.