Situated in the valley of the River Otter, Dumpdon Hill is one of the largest, and most distinct hills in the area due to a large clump of beech trees situated at its summit.

It is a prehistoric structure, built around 2,500 years ago.

Archaeologists have expanded their knowledge of the site’s Iron Age past over the last 20 years, since the Great Storm of 1990 toppled many of the beech trees on the hill and exposed more of the ground.

The top of Dumpdon is owned and maintained by the National Trust and is 250 metres (800 ft) above Sea Level. The small area of woodland on the top of Dumpdon Hill is considered locally as slightly mysterious and, due probably to its long history, is a popular location for practitioners of paganism and other types of the occult. There is also much mystery over an incident in the 1970s concerning a certain Dr Glanvill, and the rumoured discovery of bodies of which very little is known.

Legends about the impressive earthwork survive today, including a most improbable one about the existence of a tunnel from Marwood House, in High Street, to the hill’s summit. For centuries, the myth of the tunnel has been passed from generation to generation.