Merrivale Quarry

Just beside the B3357 road in the west of Dartmoor you will find Merrivale Quarry Dartmoor granite has been used in many Devon and Cornish buildings. The prison at Princetown was built from granite taken from Walkhampton Common. When the horse tramroad from Plymouth to Princetown was completed in 1823, large quantities of granite were more easily transported.

There were three major granite quarries on the moor: Haytor, Foggintor and Merrivale. The granite quarries around Haytor were the source of the stone used in several famous structures, including the New London Bridge.

The extensive quarries at Foggintor provided granite for the construction of London's Nelson's Column in the early 1840s, and New Scotland Yard was faced with granite from the quarry at Merrivale

Merrivale Quarry continued excavating and working its own granite until the 1970s, producing gravestones and agricultural rollers. Work at Merrivale continued until the 1990s. The Quarry was the last working granite quarry on Dartmoor and was famous for producing the Falklands Island War Memorial commemorating the Falklands War of 1982.

The size of the quarry dwarfs the cottage and the Dartmoor Inn which provides a welcome fire after a wet walk across the moor. The small field next to the pub is used to hold the ponies after the annual Dartmoor Drift (round up)
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