2.5 The Hairy Hands of Dartmoor

Have you ever travelled through Dartmoor and had the strange sensation that your vehicle is no longer under your control? If so, you might have encountered the Hairy Hands…

Photo by Pedro Figueras

Said to haunt a very particular stretch of the B3212 outside of Postbridge, the first gruesome tales begin around 1910. Despite the infrequency of road traffic at this time, a number of victims reported similar experiences: the sensation of their vehicle suddenly losing control, as if their hands on the wheel or handlebars had been grabbed by a pair of extraordinarily strong hands.

Then, in 1921, a medical officer at Dartmoor Prison lost control of his motorcycle, with reports that only his young daughters - who were riding in the side car - had survived the crash. Not more than a few weeks later, a charabanc bus also lost control, which the driver supposedly claimed was due to the sensation of the wheel being ripped from his fingers.

And again in 1921 came another accident in the same spot - this time involving an army captain on a motorcycle - which took the story from local whispers to national news. The captain, newspapers reported, experienced the sensation of enormous hands covering his on the handles to force him off the road.

This was, for many, more than enough evidence of some sort of vengeful spectre. In fact, encounters with the Hairy Hands, as they became known, have continued ever since.

By Phillip Capper (PhillipC) from Wellington, New Zealand - Flickr, CC BY 2.0

Theories

Multiple investigations have drawn a blank on the mystery of the hands, with a few possibilities put forward.

The first, a supernatural explanation, is that the hands belong to an inmate from Dartmoor prison, who died in an accident on that stretch of road.

The second, a scientific explanation, attributes the accidents to the curve and camber of the road. A driver who was unfamiliar with the area might attribute the steering movement caused by the sudden changes in the road surface to a sensation of control being ripped away.

The road has since been altered to account for the poor surface… but it doesn’t account for a number of sightings of the Hairy Hands crawling their way over stationary caravans and cars stopped to admire the view…

So what do you think?