Cosdon Hill · South Tawton Common

About Cosdon Hill

Cosdon Hill, also called Cosdon Beacon or Cawsand Beacon and known as South Tawton Common, is among the highest hills on Dartmoor in Devon, south-west England. The hill carries numerous traces of prehistoric occupation.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Cosdon Hill (CC BY-SA 4.0). Heights, prominence and grid references come from the Database of British & Irish Hills, not from Wikipedia.

Access rights here

General position for England — local byelaws, seasonal restrictions and closures can override it. Full details: access rights in England ·check another location.

Daylight at this summit today

Sunrise

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Sunset

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Daylight

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Civil twilight ends

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Computed astronomically for 50.707, -3.933. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

The recorded summit point is rock: highest point of ancient cairn 10m N of trig point. That distinction matters on broad or flat tops, where the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.

Survey method

Abney level/Leica RX1250

Record revised

23-Oct-23

Drop measured from

SX627886 · 470 m

Survey notes are field observations recorded in the Database of British & Irish Hills (v18.3, CC BY 4.0) by the hill-surveying community.

Reaching Cosdon Hill by train

One National Rail station sits within 8 km of the summit — close enough to make a car-free day of it. Distances are straight lines, not walking routes.

Each station page lists every hill in its reach, long-distance paths from the door and a live-times link — see all stations with hills in reach. Station positions from NaPTAN (OGL v3.0).

Get food nearby

3 places to eat or drink within 10 km of the summit, rated under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (Scotland runs its own Food Hygiene Information Scheme, a pass/fail equivalent).

Classifications and ratings are the local authority's own and can be coarse — this is a lead, not a guarantee of opening hours or that food is served to non-residents. Follow a name through to the official rating page to check, and confirm before you rely on it.

Food hygiene data from the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland (Open Government Licence v3.0). Distances and directions computed by OpenFell from the summit.

Which hill this one belongs to

Cosdon Hill is not counted as an independent hill in its own right. In prominence terms it belongs to High Willhays (622 m) — the nearest Marilyn you can reach from this summit without first dropping below its key col, 470 m.

Grouping is by prominence alone: a summit belongs to the nearest higher Marilyn it connects to without a deeper intervening col. Over a large massif that can gather hills no one would walk in a single day, and which few would describe as parts of the same mountain — it is a measure of independence, not a suggested route.

Nearest listed peaks