Jay's Grave facts for kids
 |
|
| Location | Near Manaton, Dartmoor |
|---|---|
| Region | Devon, England |
| Coordinates | 50°36′18″N 3°47′34″W / 50.60509°N 3.79269°W |
Jay's Grave (or Kitty Jay's Grave) is a well-known landmark on Dartmoor, Devon, in South-West England, and is the subject of local folklore, and several ghost stories.
The small burial mound is at the side of a minor road, about 1 mile (1.6 km) north west of Hound Tor, at the entrance to a green lane that leads to Natsworthy. Fresh flowers are regularly placed on the grave, although no-one admits to putting them there.
The grave
There are always fresh flowers on the grave, the placement of which is the subject of local folklore – some claim they are placed there by pixies, but it is known that the author Beatrice Chase was one person who did this, before her death in 1955. By 2007 the placing of flowers had expanded into all sorts of votive offerings: coins, candles, shells, small crosses and toys, for instance.
Motorists, passing at night, claim to have glimpsed ghostly figures in their headlights, others report seeing a dark, hooded figure kneeling there.
In literature
Jay's Grave was the inspiration for John Galsworthy's short story The Apple Tree, written in 1916. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle visited the nearby house, Heatree, and he is said to have been inspired by the location of the house and its proximity to Jay's Grave, Bowerman's nose, Hound Tor and Grimspound to write The Hound of the Baskervilles.
