Burleigh Camp

High on Dartmoor’s windswept slopes near Bridestowe, Burleigh Camp looms as an ancient hillfort, its Iron Age earthworks whispering secrets of a spectral squire whose shadow darkens the moor. Since the 1600s, the ghost of Squire Gideon Bidlake, cruel in life, restless in death, has haunted the camp, his gaunt figure pacing the ramparts at twilight, whip in hand, his presence chilling the air with a metallic tang and muttered oaths. From terrifying children as a bogeyman to startling a thief in 1798, his legend endures in Devon’s folklore, a stern spirit bound to the hillfort’s stones, forever watching the land he once ruled.